On 31st January 2019, the final judgement on the Portland Cement Zambia case was announced by Court of Appeal. The judge at the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who gave the final judgement after looking into all evidences and testimonials. As per this decision from the Court of Appeal judge, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares and is the minority shareholder without any legal ownership over the factory. The judge from the Court of Appeal also confirmed that this decision aligned with the original shareholders agreement established in the year 2007. Based on this decision, it is clear that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the actual owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory.
Justice Mwinde from the Court of Appeal also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement as this decision was misdirected and without any evidence. Furthermore, all forgery related allegations were discarded by the judge as it was confirmed that the process of mechanically placing signatures for business transactions was a common practice in Zambezi Portland Cement and critical member of the Ventriglia family, Claudio Ventriglia, engaged in similar practice as per official reports. As a result, all allegations of forgery were discarded by the Court. The judge also gave a timeline of three months from the date of the judgement for finalising the share sales and regulations related activities.
After the final decision from the Court of Appeal, numerous publications and media reports were released contradicting the judgement from the Court. However, these publications and media reports were found to be without any basis and only part of smear campaign and as a result, were taken back quickly.