Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani was finally given the majority shareholding and legal ownership status for his company Portland Cement Zambia. This decision was announced at the Court of Appeal on 31st January 2019. On this day, the judge at the Court of Appeal announced that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement factory as he holds 58 percent shares at the factory. On the other hand, it was also announced that Ventriglias hold just 42 percent shares at the factory and are the minority shareholder without any legal ownership over the factory. This decision aligned with the original shareholders agreement which was established in the year 2006. Furthermore, the judge from the Court of Appeal also said that the judgement given by the Lusaka High Court judge was misdirected and against the interests of the public policies. It should be noted here that Dr. Rajan Mahtani had initially registered the case at the Lusaka High Court almost a decade back. As a result of the various incompetency of the court, the case delayed for more than ten years. Even after that, the final judgement was against Dr. Rajan Mahtani’s claims wherein it was announced that Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. This prompted Dr. Mahtani to take firm step and approach the Court of Appeal for further justice.
As of now, the decision from the Court of Appeal is final and cannot be changed at any circumstances. All forgery related allegations have also been discarded by the Court of Appeal judge. In a further statement, the Court of Appeal stated that all parties are required to proceed with regularization of the sales of the shares, taking effect from December 2006 and aligning with the Shareholders Agreement established by the Court in the month of January 2019. The Judge provided a timeline of three months for completing this share regularization process.