Two Different Courts, One Case: The Peculiar Case Of Portland Cement Zambia

The case of Portland Cement Zambia is extremely peculiar. The case took for than ten years to find a resolution and was approached at two different courts in Zambia. Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the notable businessman who registered the case first at the Lusaka High Court. The judge at the Lusaka High Court was justice Nkone who gave the final judgement on the case during the month of May, 2018. As per this decision, Ventriglias were the only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. However, this decision was extremely controversial which led Dr. Rajan Mahtani to approach the Court of Appeal. 

The Court of Appeal announced its final decision on 31st January 2019, nine months after the case was re-launched there. Compared to the judgement from the Lusaka High Court judge who took more than a decade to come out, this judgement from the Court of Appeal judge was comparatively quicker. The judgement was given by justice Mwinde and was announced during the morning session. According to this judgement from the Court of Appeal, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares. 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. Based on this shareholding pattern, it is clear that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the legal owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory. This decision also aligns with the original shareholders agreement which was established in the year 2007. 

Furthermore, judge Mwinde from the Court of Appeal also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as only shareholders as this decision was given without any evidences and was misdirected.