Almaty, 30 October. The DoubleTree by Hilton hotel complex in Almaty, which Kairat Satybaldyuly handed over to the state in 2023, has been sold at electronic auction at the third attempt for 12.384 billion tenge against a starting price of 38.278 billion, according to data from the e-Qazyna state property portal.
The first auction on 25 September was held as an ascending auction starting at 12.7 billion tenge and failed with no bids. The second, on 13 October, at the same price and with a sale to a single bidder allowed, also failed. Before the third, on 29 October, the starting price was tripled to 38.2 billion, but the auction ran downwards, and the price fell almost to the independent valuation of 12.759 billion tenge. In the end the hotel was bought for roughly the sum at which nobody had wanted it twice. The buyer’s name has not been disclosed.
The building passed into state ownership under a deed of gift signed by Kairat Satybaldyuly and the Almaty state property department on 18 September 2023; at the time it was valued at 6.49 billion tenge. The transfer was part of compensation for damages in criminal cases: in 2022 Nursultan Nazarbayev’s nephew was sentenced to six years in prison for causing more than 12 billion tenge of damage to Kazakhtelecom and embezzling property of the Transport Service Centre, and in 2023 he admitted money laundering.
What it means: The state has turned one of the largest recovered assets of the first president’s family into cash, but received three times less than it hoped at the last attempt and almost exactly its valuation.
Who benefits: The budget gains 12.4 billion tenge instead of an idle asset on its books. The buyer gains a five-star hotel in central Almaty at its valuation. Why the starting price was tripled before the third auction, the sources do not explain.
Background: A descending (Dutch) auction starts at a high price and lowers it step by step until a bidder agrees to buy; an ascending auction works the other way. Since 2023 the return of illegally withdrawn assets in Kazakhstan has been handled by a special committee under the Prosecutor General’s Office.
