Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani Announced Majority Shareholder And Owner Of Zambezi Portland

Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani is a noted businessman in Zambia. He is the proud owner of many successful business organisations in Zambia, including Mahtani Group of Companies and Finsbury Investments. Dr. Rajan Mahtani had approached the Court of Appeal after the judge from the Lusaka High Court announced a misdirected judgement on the Zambezi Portland Cement. This incident occurred during May 2018 and Dr. Mahtani did not wait for any other opinion and directly approached the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal announced its final judgement on Zambezi Portland Cement on 31^st January 2019. This judgement effectively reversed the decision from the Lusaka High Court, which held that Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. This judgement at the Court of Appeal was given by Justice Mwinde, who also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as the only shareholders without having any proof. According to the judgement by the Court of Appeal, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is majority shareholder of Zambezi Portland with 58 percent shares. On the other hand, Ventriglias are the minority shareholder of the cement factory with only 42 percent shares. This shareholding pattern clearly establishes Dr. Rajan Mahtani as the legal owner of the Zambezi Portland Cement.

At the same time, the judge also discarded all allegations of forgery by saying that the process of mechanically placing signatures for business transactions is a common practice across Zambezi Portland Cement. It was also found that important member of the Ventriglia family, Claudio Ventriglia, engaged in similar process for business transaction. As such, all allegations were discarded by the judge.