AtaHolding LLC

AtaHolding LLC (formerly AtaHolding OJSC) is an Azerbaijani financial conglomerate.[544] [329] Between 2013 and 2014, it was majority owned (51%) by Hughson Management Inc,[252] a Panamanian company controlled by Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva.[25] [23] The other shareholders at that time were Asbet Limited, which owned 25%, and Clonmel International Inc., which owned 24%.[252]

AtaHolding has subsidiaries in multiple sectors, including insurance, equipment leasing, travel, IT solutions, and sports sponsorship.[999] It owns hotels, including the five-star Excelsior hotel in Baku, as well as a poultry farm in Shamkir, in northwestern Azerbaijan.[544]

The conglomerate was founded in July 2003, several months before Ilham Aliyev assumed the presidency.[329] Azerbaijan’s then-tax minister, Fazil Mammadov, now deceased, was reportedly the driving force behind its creation.[534] Several of AtaHolding’s senior managers are former tax ministry officials, including former chairman Gafar Gurbanov and current chief executive Ashraf Kamilov.[533] [540] [521] Kamilov and Gurbanov are members of a network of businessmen who have managed offshore companies that bought and sold properties on behalf of Azerbaijan’s first family.[521] [536] In particular, both were involved in a 215 million GBP property investment in Central London—Holborn Links—that was completed in 2014.[645] [646] [1202] [275]

In 2015, AtaHolding reported assets worth 634 million manats ($600 million).[248] By 2019—the last year for which records are available—the value of its portfolio had shrunk to just 85 million manats ($50 million).[251]