Dr. Rajan Mahtani is a noted businessman from Zambia with numerous successful business ventures. For the past ten years, Dr. Rajan Mahtani has been fighting for the legal takeover of the Zambezi Portland Cement. The case was first registered at the Lusaka High Court where it ran for more than ten years amid lackluster judgments and frequent transfer of the judges. The final decision on the Portland Cement case was announced by Justice Nkonde on the month of May 2019. However, this final decision was a controversial one as the judge declared that Ventriglias were the only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. After this unfair judgment, Dr. Rajan Mahtani took the case to Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal announced its final decision on 31st January 2019. The decision was announced by Justice Mwinde who also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as the only shareholders without any proof or evidence. With this, the Court of Appeal judge announced that Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares. On the other hand, Ventriglias own 42 percent shares at the factory and are just minority shareholders of the cement factory without any legal authority. Based on this decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the legal shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement. This decision also aligns with the original shareholders agreement which was established in the year 2007.
Apart from this decision, the judge from the Court of Appeal further discarded all appeals associated with forgery allegations. It was announced that the process of mechanically placing signatures was a common practice across Zambezi Portland Cement and even Claudio Ventriglia, an important member of the Ventriglia family, engaged in similar practice. As such, the forgery allegations were considered invalid by the Court. Furthermore, a timeline of three months was given for completion of share regularization process.