Almaty has listed the DoubleTree by Hilton building for auction for a third time. The hotel previously belonged to Kairat Satybaldy, a former oligarch and nephew of Nursultan Nazarbayev. The auction is scheduled for October 29, according to an announcement on the e-Qazyna platform, infohub.kz reports.
Previous auctions held on September 25 and October 13 failed to attract buyers. At that time, the starting price was about 12.76 billion tenge.
Now the starting price has been tripled, but the sale will be conducted on a downward basis. The auction starts at 38.28 billion tenge, but during bidding the price may drop to 8.93 billion. The appraised value remains unchanged at 12.76 billion tenge. Thus, the minimum price is about 30% below the appraised value.
"Sale to a single bidder is permitted," the lot description states.
The seller is the Department of State Property and Privatization of Almaty. The lot includes a building with an area of 16,196.4 square meters, located at 115 Dosmukhamedov Street. Furniture, brand rights, and franchise are not included in the sale. The land plot is not included in the appraised value, and the transfer of rights to it is stipulated separately.
The complex was built by Abli-Qurylys LLP as the first DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Kazakhstan. The investment exceeded 6 billion tenge. The 11-story building has 112 rooms, conference halls, a restaurant, a swimming pool, and a spa area.
According to the Anti-Corruption Agency, in November 2021 the hotel was acquired by a company linked to Satybaldy. Subsequently, the hotel was included in the list of assets he transferred to the state as compensation for damages in criminal cases.
In September 2022, the businessman was sentenced to six years in prison in a case involving embezzlement and property damage to Kazakhtelecom and the Transport Service Center.
The gift agreement transferring the complex to the state was concluded on September 18, 2023. Earlier, the Anti-Corruption Agency valued the building at 6.49 billion tenge. After the transfer, private companies continued to use it: a court ordered them to vacate the premises and recovered over 1.1 billion tenge from Abli-hotels for the use of state property.