Acrostics Asia’s Founder Eveline Danubrata attended the 5th Singapore-China International Commercial Dispute Resolution Conference on 24 October 2025 and wrote an expert commentary for Asian Legal Business (ALB).

The conference was opened by Singapore’s Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs Edwin Tong and coincided with Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s official visit to the city-state.

The event brought together government officials, legal practitioners, and business leaders from both countries. The theme that stood out throughout the conference was the importance for the business and legal communities in Singapore and China to bridge cultural barriers.

Acrostics Asia’s take on Indonesian sovereign fund Danantara’s planned issuance of “patriot bonds” was picked by LinkedIn News as one of the Top Perspectives.

💼 Brief Take: Danantara’s Patriotic Pitch

27 August 2025

• Indonesian sovereign fund Danantara has moved fast to build its capital structure.

• President Prabowo Subianto’s government is seeking to rekindle the patriotic spirit by asking local tycoons to buy Danantara’s low-yield bonds.

Indonesia’s new sovereign wealth fund Danantara has sounded out investors on a plan to raise IDR 50 trillion (USD 3.1 billion) by selling so-called patriot bonds at below-market yields, Bloomberg reported on 26 August 2025.

Eveline’s Take:

🔸 Half a year since it was officially established, Danantara has moved fast to build its capital structure. “National-scale projects demand diversified financing. Funds come not only from the dividends of state-owned enterprises, but also bank loans, co-investments with other investors, and many other possibilities,” the fund wrote in its “Danantara Diaries”.

🔸 I wrote in November 2024 that Danantara was designed to pool Indonesian state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and leverage up to fund President Prabowo Subianto’s projects. Last month, Danantara appointed DBS, HSBC, Natixis, Standard Chartered and United Overseas Bank to arrange a USD 10 billion unsecured loan, Reuters reported.

🔸 The drawdown of the loan is likely tied to specific projects and the fulfilment of the agreed conditions. While Danantara is set to tap SOE dividends to service the loan, I wrote in July that the fund would have to expand its base of lenders and construct a bridge to bonds for potential refinancing. However, I flagged that some offshore bondholders may ask tougher questions to Indonesian issuers including Danantara.

🔸 Enter the Indonesian tycoons. Danantara wrote in its diaries that even though the coupons of the patriot bonds are below market rates, the structure reflects the bond’s purpose. “It’s like impact-first funds: those willing to sacrifice returns if it pushes their cause forward. But impact investors understand that once the payoff arrives, it will dwarf the sacrifice.”

🔸 The concept of “gotong royong” – described by Danantara as “the tradition of communities working together toward a shared goal” – is not new. Former President Suharto once invited around 30 business leaders, including Salim Group’s late founder Liem Sioe Liong, to his Tapos ranch near Bogor in March 1990, according to a book authored by Richard Borsuk and Nancy Chng.

🔸 At the ranch (which included a cattle breeding station and a go-kart track), Suharto addressed the thorny subject of the widening income disparity in Indonesia and urged the tycoons to take concrete action to help narrow this gap, Borsuk and Chng wrote.

🔸 Three decades later, Indonesia’s current president who was Suharto’s son in law, Prabowo, is seeking to rekindle that patriotic spirit. The Indonesian government met a group of tycoons on 23 August to brief them about the bonds and some of them agreed to invest IDR 2 – 3 trillion (USD 122 – 183.5 million) each, The Straits Times reported.

Full Acrostics Asia Coverage

• 📚 Acrostics Anatomy: Danantara’s Genesis

• 📚 Acrostics Anatomy: Danantara’s Bridge to Bonds

• 🔮 Indonesian SOEs 2026 Outlook: Danantara

Indonesia’s Launch of Danantara

25 February 2025

Acrostics Asia’s Founder, Eveline Danubrata, was interviewed by BBC Chief Presenter Steve Lai about the launch of Indonesian sovereign fund Danantara.

These were some of the points that Eveline highlighted:

• Danantara – which was pitched as Indonesia’s version of Singapore state investor Temasek – aimed to consolidate state-owned assets and leverage them to fund President Prabowo Subianto’s projects.

• The scale of Prabowo’s ambitions and the speed at which he was trying to achieve them were hallmarks of his presidency, but he would likely have to balance his vision with the commercial reality.

• On paper, it made sense to consolidate the fragmented state assets and attract investments to grow the domestic economy. However, investors wouldn’t want Danantara to become a cash cow for political purposes.

China Evergrande

27 September 2023

Eveline made another appearance on the BBC Asia Business Report to speak about China Evergrande, one of the biggest developers at the epicenter of China’s deepening property turmoil.

These were some of the points that Eveline highlighted:

• The negative news on Evergrande would likely damage confidence even more and put a question mark over the company’s ability to generate fresh cash.

• If there was no cash coming in, everyone would essentially be fighting for a piece of a shrinking pie. The issue would be how to slice and dice it.

• Broadly speaking, there was a huge imbalance in China’s property sector, with massive oversupply and insufficient demand. This imbalance must be rectified for the Chinese economy to recover.

• To restore confidence, stakeholders must be assured that there was enough cash to go around. Otherwise, there would likely be a scramble for the developer’s remaining assets.

China Property Stress and Country Garden

15 September 2023

Eveline was interviewed by BBC Presenter Arunoday Mukharji about China’s property troubles and the liquidity crunch of major developer Country Garden.

These were some of the points that Eveline highlighted:

• The key ingredients for China’s recovery were to restore homebuyers’ confidence and improve the developers’ access to capital.

• The latest data showed that banks were still cautious about lending to the property sector. These banks preferred lending to state-owned developers that were seen as the safer companies.

• Country Garden’s creditors targeted its overseas assets to pursue recovery, but most of the project value was based on expected sales, which ultimately hinged on whether the developer could complete construction.