Fazil Mammadov, now deceased, was a former Azerbaijani tax minister who was reportedly the driving force behind the creation of AtaHolding LLC (formerly AtaHolding OJSC), an Azerbaijani financial conglomerate.[544] [329] [534] [962] The conglomerate was founded in July 2003, several months before Ilham Aliyev assumed the presidency,[329] and it 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] In 2015, AtaHolding reported assets worth 634 million manats ($600 million).[248] By 2019, the value of its portfolio had shrunk to just 85 million manats ($50 million).[251]
Mammadov also owned Capper Marketing Inc, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands,[632] in 2006, when the company acquired a 101-square-meter penthouse in The Kingsbridge,[519] [521] a luxury apartment building in West London opposite Hyde Park.[731] After the purchase, shares in the company were transferred to Arzu Aliyeva before being transferred to an Aliyev family trust in the Isle of Man.[519] [521] [520]
