Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani has always kept his people above his profitability. As such, he has invested significantly in charitable trusts as well as environmental groups. As a result, it was an extremely controversial affair when his factory, Zambezi Portland Cement, was unethically taken over and he had to appeal to the court. The case was initially registered as Lusaka High Court with the hopes of quick judgement. However, that did not happen and despite a dragged case proceeding of more than ten years, the final statement from Lusaka High Court was extremely controversial and misdirected.
This misdirected Lusaka High Court judgement did not bring Dr. Rajan Mahtani down and he further approached the higher Court of Appeal. The judge at the higher Court of Appeal, justice Mwinde looked into all evidences and testimonials and declared his final statement on 31st January 2019. This statement confirmed Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments as the majority shareholder of the factory with 58 percent Zambezi Portland shares. On the other hand, it also confirmed that the Ventriglias only own 42 percent shares and do not have any majority ownership at the factory. This decision was further confirmed by the various details shared by the judge. It was found that Finsbury Investments on behalf of Dr. Rajan Mahtani paid around USD 250,000 to the Zambezi Portland Cement. This official payment was done in the year 2005 for covering the entire share value for the Zambezi Portland Limited factory. Furthermore, it was also confirmed that this payment was equivalent to 1 billion kwacha and thereby, Finsbury Investments did not have any other costs associated with takeover of the ZPC factory. This information was clearly stated in the original shareholders agreement finalised in the year 2007.
This information was clearly ignored or suppressed by the previous court as these details are clear explanation of Dr. Rajan Mahtani’s legal ownership at ZPC limited.
