Finsbury Investments Emerges Winner And Majority Shareholder Of The Zambezi Portland Factory

A critical decision was made by the Court of Appeal on 31^st January 2019. It was related to Zambezi Portland Cement factory, a cement manufacturing factory in Zambia. The factory was contested by two business parties for the past ten years during which, the case was transferred from one court to another and from one judge to another. Dr. Rajan Mahtani has claimed that the factory was illegally taken over from him and he is the legal owner of the factory. To prove his claim, he has been sharing numerous evidences and testimonials before several judges at the Lusaka High Court but to no avail. The final decision from the Lusaka High Court came almost a decade later and it was disappointing. According to the judge Nkonde from Lusaka High Court, Ventriglias were the only shareholders of Zambezi Portland Cement. Notwithstanding this misdirected judgement, Dr. Rajan Mahtani then approached the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal announced its final judgement on 31^st January 2019 in which, it was declared that Finsbury Investments is the majority shareholder of Zambezi Portland with 58 percent shares. On the other hand, Ventriglias’ owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds 42 percent shares at the factory and is the minority shareholder of the factory. As per this shareholding pattern, Finsbury Investments becomes the legal owner of the factory. At the same time, this decision confines with the original Shareholders Agreement established in the year 2007.

While giving this decision, the judge at the Court of Appeal also condemned the judgement from the Lusaka High Court judge and considered it as against the interest of public policies