Zambezi Portland Cement

The recent judgement from the Court of Appeal was a historic judgement across the Zambian corporate world. The judgment was related to Portland Cement Zambia, a noted cement-manufacturing factory which was being contested by two big business houses in Zambia. The factory was first contested at the Lusaka High Court almost ten years back when Dr. Rajan Mahtani, the owner of Finsbury Investments registered a complaint. Since then, numerous proceedings and court hearings took place and even after submitting strong evidences, the final judgement from Lusaka High Court was disappointing . As such, Dr. Rajan Mahtani took proper action and registered an appeal to the Court of Appeal at Zambia. On 31 st January 2019, the judge overseeing the case of Zambezi Portland at the Court of Appeal announced that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is Zambezi Portland Cement’s majority shareholder. By giving this decision, the Court of Appeal effectively reversed the judgement from High Court given on Ma

On 31 st January 2019, the final and ultimate truth regarding the fate of Portland Cement Zambia was announced. The Court of Appeal finally made the significant decision to reverse the judgment from the High Court delivered by Justice Nkonde during May 2018. Last year, the Lusaka High Court made a final announcement on Portland Cement Zambia after more than ten years of proceedings and court hearings. During this time, Dr. Rajan Mahtani had submitted numerous evidences and testimonials in his defense. Some of the critical evidences included signed shareholders’ agreement, financial reports, investment reports which proved that Dr. Mahtani and his company Finsbury Investment had invested more than USD 12 million on the growth and development of the factory. One of the most critical evidence submitted by Dr. Mahtani was the independent audit report conducted by an independent auditor. As per the audit report, the Portland Cement Zambia factory was established as joint venture