Portland Cement Zambia is a noted cement-manufacturing factory in Zambia. The factory has been in ownership battle for more than a decade. Dr. Rajan Mahtani has been one of the contenders from the start and the other contender were the Ventriglia family. The Ventriglia family is often alleged for engaging in unethical and illegal activities. After the dispute on shareholding structure of Portland Cement started, a case was launched at the Lusaka High Court. The final decision from the Lusaka High Court came more than a decade later and it was controversial to say the least. The judge at the Lusaka High Court was justice Nkonde who said that any changes in the ownership of the Zambezi Portland shares made between December 2006 and February 2007 were conducted with fraud. Justice Nkonde also declared that Finsbury Investments failed to demonstrate the payment of PTT (property transfer tax) which was legal requirement for purchasing ZPC shares. In their final decision, Lusaka High Court judge declared Ventriglias as the only shareholders of the Portland Cement.
Finsbury Investments under the ownership of Dr. Rajan Mahtani appealed this misdirected decision at the Court of Appeal on several grounds. On 31st January 2019, justice Mwinde declared Dr. Rajan Mahtani as the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory with 58 percent shares. This decision from the higher Court of Appeal was definitive and final. However, the Ventriglias once again tried to disrupt the functioning of the factory by challenging the court of Appeal’s decision at the Supreme Court Zambia.
Supreme Court Zambia is the biggest legal authority in Zambia and after evaluation, they found the challenge by the Ventriglias to be invalid and rejected it.
Rajan Mahtani News 