Company research in the South Caucasus: Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan

Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan lie between Russia, Iran and Turkey. Oil and gas pipelines run from the Caspian through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey, and the trans-Caspian freight route known as the Middle Corridor links Central Asia with the Black Sea and Europe through the same two countries. Companies here may trade, carry or hold assets for business that starts or ends elsewhere, and the three countries' public records differ markedly in what they disclose.

Georgia: an open registry

Georgia's National Agency of Public Registry, under the Ministry of Justice, keeps both the registry of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurial legal entities and the register of rights to immovable property. The law treats registered data as public and provides for an extract to be issued to any person. A company extract typically shows the name, identification code, legal form, address, management and representation, and any recorded restrictions or pledges. For limited liability companies and partnerships, the partners and their shareholdings are registered, and charters and other registration documents can usually be viewed electronically. Shareholders of joint stock companies are not recorded in the registry.

Property extracts show the owner, cadastral data and registered rights such as mortgages and leases. Seizures and certain liens sit in separate registers kept by the same agency, so a full property check covers more than one record. Where the registered owner is a foreign company, the chain continues abroad.

Armenia: declared beneficial owners

Armenia's state register of legal entities is kept by an agency of the Ministry of Justice. Its online system allows companies to be searched, and extracts and charters can be requested, generally for a fee. Armenia also has a beneficial ownership regime. Disclosure began with mining companies and was extended in stages until, from January 2023, it covered most legal entities. Companies declare their beneficial owners and must update the declaration when ownership or control changes.

Access has conditions. Basic details, such as a beneficial owner's name, citizenship and the date the interest began, have been free, while fuller details have carried a fee. Civil society reviews have described access as limited to Armenian internet addresses and verification as still developing. Declarations are the companies' own statements and should be tested against other records.

Azerbaijan: less in the public domain

Commercial legal entities in Azerbaijan are registered by the State Tax Service under the Ministry of Economy, whose website offers basic register searches. Public access to ownership data was restricted by amendments in 2012, and information on the founders of commercial companies and their shares is treated as a trade secret, available only to authorised state bodies. Rules in force since May 2025 require companies to report their beneficial owners to the authorities, with deadlines for existing companies phased over several years. That information is not public either, so ownership research relies more on foreign registers, filings by listed counterparties, procurement results, court material and the press.

A company can be fully visible in one register and barely visible in the next.

Courts, procurement and scripts

Court and procurement records show disputes, debts and dealings with the state, but publication differs.

• Georgia. Access to court decisions has been the subject of litigation and legislative change. The Supreme Court publishes depersonalised decisions, while lower-court decisions may need to be requested. Public procurement runs through a single electronic system.
• Armenia. The Datalex judicial information system allows cases to be searched by party and case details. Procurement platforms publish tenders, contracts and bidders' beneficial ownership declarations.
• Azerbaijan. The Supreme Court offers an online search of its decisions. A unified procurement portal publishes tenders, results and contract information.

Georgian and Armenian each have their own alphabet. Azerbaijan readopted a Latin alphabet after independence, replacing Cyrillic. Russian appears in older records, in Russian-language media and in the records of Russian counterparties. A Georgian surname ending in -shvili or -dze, an Armenian one in -yan, -ian or -jan, or an Azerbaijani one in -ov, -ova or -li may appear in several Latin and Cyrillic forms. Searches should start in the original script and record every variant.

Foreign links and lawful methods

Ownership in the region can run through companies registered abroad, including in Russia, Cyprus, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the British Virgin Islands and the United Arab Emirates. A chain can pass from an open Georgian record to a register that shows little. Links to Russian or Iranian counterparties also need review under the sanctions regimes that apply to the client.

All three countries have personal data legislation, and Georgia adopted a new law in 2023. Researchers should also observe the data protection rules of their own jurisdiction. We use published registers, court and procurement records and media, accessed in line with each source's terms. Local researchers and interviewees may face legal, professional or personal risk, which differs across the three countries. They should never be asked to obtain restricted information, and their safety and identities must be protected. Registers and access rules change, so each should be checked at the time of research.

We begin with the most informative register in the chain, record identifiers and every spelling of each name, and work outward to courts, procurement and foreign registers. We state where a record is closed and what other sources can and cannot establish.