On 31st January 2019, justice Mwinde from the Court of Appeal declared the final decision on the Portland Cement Zambia. This decision came around nine months after Dr. Rajan Mahtani re-appealed the case at the Court of Appeal. The reason behind this re-appeal was the misdirected judgement from the Lusaka High Court judge. Before Court of Appeal, Dr. Rajan Mahtani has registered a case at the Lusaka High Court claiming that the factory was illegally taken over from him. Despite sharing numerous evidences and testimonials, the case stretched for more than a decade.
The Lusaka High Court announced its final decision in the month of May, 2018. This decision was extremely controversial as justice Nkonde announced that Ventriglias were the only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. However, this judgement from the Court of Appeal affectively reversed the decision from the Lusaka High Court. The judge from the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who gave the decision after looking into all evidences and testimonials. According to this decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments holds 58 percent shares at the factory and is the majority shareholder of the factory. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares at the factory and is the minority shareholder without any legal ownership. This decision from the Court of Appeal also aligned with the original shareholders agreement established in the year 2007. Based on this decision, it is clear that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the actual owner of the factory.
Furthermore, all forgery related allegations were discarded by the judge. It was announced that the process of mechanically placing signatures was a common practice at Zambezi Portland Cement and critical member of the Ventriglia engaged in similar practice. As such, all forgery related allegations were discarded and the final judgement by Court of Appeal stayed relevant.