Introduction
Varidat Consulting, a professional legal and financial consulting service provider based in Azerbaijan, was founded in 1994 by Nail Shahverdiyev. The founding father earned his degree with the highest distinction from Voronezh Law College (1988) and an undergraduate degree in Law from Voronezh State University. But in 1994 he decided to start small with a law firm and could hardly imagine that twenty years later his start-up would grow into of the leading consulting company in Azerbaijan.
1994
The company planned to concentrate on providing legal and management consultancy services, but became more famous for its advisory in establishing corporate companies, and restructuring from public state companies into privately held LLCs. Mr.Shahverdiyev was determined to help senior management in the post-soviet Azerbaijani companies solve their most crucial business problems. It was the era of "management engineers" who were in most cases responsible for the entire enterprise’s efficiency and performance. However, Mr. Shahverdiyev managed to persuade his customers that his young organization was able not only to help establish a new company and save inefficient companies, but also to assist prosperous state-owned companies in reorganizing their working process to fit in the post-Soviet chaotic business environment.
1990s
The dynamic late 1990s. This period saw business leaders in Azerbaijan making value creation and cross-border competitiveness a priority, which resulted in intensified merger and acquisition activity. In addition, the rapid development of new technologies required new investment.
In the 1990s, business leaders faced these serious new priorities, and Varidat found its responsibility to support them. We expanded the scope of our recruitment to broaden our competence and employ consulting experts working in the required areas. We also invested considerably in codifying our knowledge and making it accessible across the company, laying the foundation for the true professional consulting community that Varidat is today.
2000s
The new opportunities. Distinguished by the remarkable highs and lows, the 2000s were a memorable decade for the world and for Varidat. Revolutionary changes in the global economy opened up new opportunities for trade, production, wealth creation, and the alleviation of poverty.
Throughout the decade, Varidat’s customer service continued to expand and go beyond the traditional core of legal, dispute resolution, corporate law, and organization. With the further progress of our Business Development Practice, we built a strong business relationship with large corporations like Turkish Airlines, Toyota Corporation, Daewoo, Austrian Airlines and many others.
In the 2000s, we consulted Baki Sigorta and provided a full legal outsourcing business model to Saba (Davachi Broyler), United Credit Bank, Bank Respublika, Lufthansa and so on.
In 2010, we acted as a legal advisor for Elcell in the 20% private equity deal transaction with EBRD.
From 2007 to 2008, we worked closely with Honda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, and Mazda advising local investors on their license receipt and assisting them in establishing businesses in Baku, and since then we have become their legal advisor.
2014
In 2014,Varidat Consulting celebrates its 20th anniversary. Nail Shahverdiyev has decided to take the company to the next level by repositioning and rebranding it and recruiting the brightest young consultants.
We believe that investing in knowledge and experience and attracting the best professionals will lead us to becoming a top consulting company not only in Azerbaijan but also in regional markets.