📰 Weekly Roundup (23-29 June 2026): Acrostics Asia Podcast #1 on Asia Private Capital with Jacqueline Chan | Southeast Asia Radar #2 | 3 India Headlines #2 | Building Notes
Weekly newsletter
Dear Valued Contacts,
Acrostics Asia has kicked off its podcast series that hosts conversations with leading practitioners on the trends shaping Asian sovereigns, private credit and restructurings. Designed for busy professionals, it provides insights in concise 20-minute episodes.
🎙️ Acrostics Asia Podcast #1: 12 Questions on Asia Private Capital with Jacqueline Chan (24 June 2026)
Jacqueline Chan, a Partner at Milbank LLP, explores 12 questions on Asia private capital, covering the state of play across the region, evolving deal structures and trends. The full episode is available on Acrostics Asia’s website, YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts, with short clips on LinkedIn.
🛜 Southeast Asia Radar #2 (23 June 2026)
Malaysian government agency Felda Group’s spat with farmers and vendors after shutting down its dairy business is the latest in its mis-steps over the years. These include an expensive plantation deal with Indonesian conglomerate Rajawali Group that it’s been struggling to unwind.
In Indonesia, President Prabowo Subianto was likely forced to rein in his flagship free school lunch program because the market outflows and the rupiah’s drop to record lows risked hurting the lower-to-middle income class, which is a key voter base for the former general.
Vietnam: Vingroup, Vietcap Securities
Singapore: Singapore Airlines, Keppel
Philippines: Inflationary pressures remain strong
📑 3 India Headlines #2 (27 June 2026)
Vedanta’s Bond Deal: A subsidiary of UK-based Vedanta Resources has accepted bids worth USD 1.75 billion for a three-tranche issuance of dollar bonds, Reuters reported. I wrote that in the eyes of some buyside investors, the Indian group had passed a trial by fire when it secured a crucial USD 1.25 billion private credit facility in late 2023, which reopened its access to the debt markets. Vedanta managed to tighten the pricing for its latest offshore bond deal and reduce its funding costs.
Private Credit Squeeze: Intensifying competition in India’s private credit market is compressing yields for large, plain-vanilla sponsor-backed deals, but mid-market transactions continue to offer better pricing power, Moneycontrol reported, citing a Lighthouse Canton executive.
SP Group’s Bond Extension: Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group has offered bondholders a 30-basis point fee in exchange for approving another extension on the debt owed by its unit, Bloomberg reported. I wrote on 8 May 2026 that some creditors who have built a sizeable exposure wouldn’t want the conglomerate to default before they are at least partially repaid, but the cost of buying time is getting higher and higher.
“Move your brains,” my father used to say in Mandarin to his three children if we encountered an obstacle when we were growing up.
He didn’t accept no as an answer and would always find alternative routes around roadblocks that emerged while he built his business. Watching my father lift himself from humble beginnings to give his family a better life, I learned that it’s possible to build something out of nothing.
When I started building Acrostics Asia last year, some skeptics wondered what I could possibly achieve without massive resources.
My focus first and foremost is quality, as one report that truly breaks news or connects the dots can help readers to figure out the game more than a dozen fragmentary articles. I also believe that no amount of marketing can save a bad product, but a good product can travel through word of mouth.
Second, my approach with Acrostics Asia is that it’s not everything to everybody. Instead, I aim to be useful to a group of people over and over – knowing them well enough that I can anticipate what’s relevant to them and answer the questions that they may have.
Third, I want Acrostics Asia to be a place to talk things out and make sense of complex situations together. Throughout the years covering Asian credit, some of the best lessons I learned were not from reading restructuring proposals or court documents – they came from real-life practitioners.
This is why I launched the Acrostics Asia Podcast to host conversations with leading practitioners across Asian sovereigns, private credit and restructurings. I also embraced the multimedia format because news consumers are increasingly moving towards visuals, not just text.
Acrostics Asia may well be a way for me to put into practice my father’s advice of ‘moving my brains’.
Belatedly, Happy Fathers’ Day to the fathers out there!
Acrostics Asia is an independent credit intelligence provider that delivers forward-looking insights across Asian sovereigns, private credit and restructurings.