The judge from the Court of appeal announced the final decision on Portland Cement Zambia on 31st January 2019. This decision came around nine months after Dr. Rajan Mahtani registered the case at the Court of Appeal. However, it is worth noting here that Dr. Mahtani had initially registered the case at the Lusaka High Court, that too almost a decade back. The case was registered after Dr. Rajan Mahtani claimed that the factory was illegally taken over. After that, numerous case proceedings took place and justice Nkonde gave the final results on the case. However, the decision from the Lusaka High Court judge was extremely controversial as it announced Ventriglias as only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. To counter this judgement, Dr. Rajan Mahtani then took the case to Court of Appeal.
The judge at the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who gave the final judgement on 31st January 2019. According to this judgement, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments holds 58 percent shares at the factory and is the majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares at the factory and is the minority shareholder without any legal ownership over the factory. This decision from the Court of Appeal also aligns with the original shareholders agreement established in the year 2007. Based on this decision from the Court of Appeal, it is clearly established that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the legal owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory.
The Court of Appeal judge also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as only shareholders as this decision was misdirected.