Winning Bidder Loses $400,000 Deposit After Saiga Horn Auction Collapses

A high-stakes auction for saiga antelope derivatives on the e-Qazyna state trading portal has failed after the winning bidder refused to finalize the deal. The buyer has lost a guarantee deposit of 184 million tenge (approx. $400,000). The Transaction The asset-a lot of saiga horns stored in Almaty's Turksib district-was put up for sale by JSC Zhasyl Damu. The starting price was set at 1.227 billion tenge. Following a bidding war between two participants on September 14, the price climbed to 1.271 billion tenge. The Failure Despite the price hike, the transaction collapsed at the final stage. According to lot № 456503, the status as of September 18 is listed as "Concluded (signing period expired)." The winner failed to sign the final protocol via electronic digital signature (EDS).