📰 Weekly Roundup (24-30 March 2026): Serba Dinamik’s Castle of Illusion | Indonesian Restructuring Case Studies | Garuda Indonesia’s Quicksand | Asian Sovereign Signals
Weekly newsletter
Note: Eveline will be away this week.
Dear Valued Contacts,
Last week I focused on a couple of deep dives in Malaysia and Indonesia. Also do check out the compilation of Acrostics Asia’s sovereign signals across Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, China, Sri Lanka and Mongolia.
📒 Quick Take: Serba Dinamik’s Castle of Illusion (25 March 2026)
How did Serba Dinamik fool lenders including banks and offshore bondholders before the Malaysian energy services company’s auditor blew the whistle?
Across various sectors and countries, the common pattern is to raise money from investors or lenders by making them believe that more money will be made down the road, even though the underlying business is not generating enough cash. In short, the game is to create and maintain the illusion of a real business.
Serba’s modus operandi can be boiled down into four categories:
Working Capital Management
Elevated Margins
Questionable Transactions
Overseas Foray
📚 Acrostics Anatomy: Indonesian Restructuring Case Studies (25 September 2024)
The tricks used by Serba over the years were remarkably similar to the toolkits deployed by bankrupt Indonesian textile company Sri Rejeki Isman (Sritex). I’ve republished the Indonesian Restructuring Case Studies that I wrote back in September 2024, as some of the takeaways are applicable to other situations.
📒 Quick Take: Garuda Indonesia’s Quicksand (26 March 2026)
I wrote in May 2025 that given the restructuring fault lines in Indonesia, the options left for Garuda were to restructure its debt one by one, protect its key units, or start a new company. “All three options are unpalatable for Garuda, so officials might be tempted to throw just enough cash at the problem and pray that it’ll resurface later rather than sooner.”
The Indonesian flag carrier has now landed on quicksand, as the capital injection from sovereign fund Danantara risks drying up faster than expected. This erosion may accelerate because of three factors:
The Iran War has pushed up oil prices and forced some airlines to fly longer routes to avoid the geopolitical minefield.
The weaker rupiah has increased the costs of repairs and maintenance.
Nearly 40% of Garuda’s fleet was reportedly grounded, meaning that the airline has to keep paying for maintenance without being able to fly those planes.
🚨 Newsflash: Garuda Indonesia Says PKPU Ratification Recognized by French Court (27 March 2026)
There’s some good news for Garuda and its lawyers, as its local in-court restructuring (PKPU) was recognized by a French court. The Paris Civil Court also ordered Greylag Goose Leasing to pay legal costs to the flag carrier and its French subsidiary.
Greylag is one of Garuda’s lessors that waged a multi-year, multi-jurisdiction war against the airline. Garuda scored victories on critical battlegrounds, such as getting its restructuring recognized in Singapore and successfully asserting foreign state immunity in Australia.
👟 Walk the Talk: Asian Sovereign Signals (27 March 2026)
Acrostics Asia has been delivering forward-looking insights across Asian sovereigns and state-linked entities as part of its daily flow. The proof is in the file.
