📰 Weekly Roundup (24 Feb-2 March 2026): Mongolia’s Financing Window | Jakarta’s Third Rail | Indonesia’s Plane Pool | Wilmar’s Pakistan Troubles
Weekly newsletter
Dear Valued Contacts,
Acrostics Asia turned one last week! Within a year, Acrostics Asia has built a track record of delivering forward-looking insights with proven accuracy across Asia’s credit markets, particularly Asian sovereigns and state-linked entities.
Thanks for your support – I’m looking forward to the next phase, which will include deepening Acrostics Asia’s coverage and expanding collaborations across the region (you can read more about my plans here).
📒 Quick Take: Mongolia’s Financing Window (25 Feb 2026)
Mongolia’s sovereign and corporates are seizing a financing window that opened early in the year. On 23 February, Moody’s assigned a B1 rating to a proposed USD bond that will be issued by the government of Mongolia.
Other Mongolian issuers that may tap the debt market this year include state-owned lender Development Bank of Mongolia, housing financier Mongolian Mortgage Corporation, and one of the country’s systemically important banks, Golomt Bank, according to Capital Markets Mongolia (CMM).
I wrote that the structural mismatch of Mongolia’s economy may propel both the government and private companies to increasingly tap offshore funding.
📒 Quick Take: Jakarta’s Third Rail (1 March 2026)
Indonesia has been borrowing more to fund President Prabowo Subianto’s spending plans and the cost of servicing this growing debt is a key factor to watch for investors. Interest payments “very likely” exceeded the key threshold of 15% of government revenue last year, S&P’s sovereign analyst Rain Yin reportedly said on 26 February.
While Indonesia’s debt-to-GDP ratio is still low compared with regional peers, I wrote that interest payments could become a bigger burden for Indonesia, especially if state revenue is not keeping pace with the increase in borrowings.
Indonesia has been able to raise new debt because some investors are keen for fresh sovereign paper and they are betting that the government will have ways to work around its fiscal limits. However, Indonesia’s fiscal deficit ceiling of 3% of GDP is like the “third rail” because visibly crossing it may cause some investors to jump off the train.
📒 Quick Take: Indonesia’s Plane Pool (27 Feb 2026)
Indonesia is pooling the fleet of its state-owned carriers to overcome their plane shortage – like the airline version of a carpool.
Sovereign fund Danantara aims to form an aviation holding company in the first half of this year, according to a senior official. The new company will oversee flag carrier Garuda Indonesia and its budget unit Citilink, along with Pelita Air, a subsidiary of state-owned energy company Pertamina.
Acrostics Asia wrote five months ago that the driver for a potential merger between Garuda and Pelita Air was likely to consolidate their resources, as the aircraft supply chain lagged behind the post-pandemic travel boom.
🚨 Newsflash: Wilmar Discloses “Liquidity Issues” at Pakistan Associate (26 Feb 2026)
Singapore-based agribusiness group Wilmar International said that “unresolved issues” that were recently discovered in the accounts of its Pakistan associated company had led to “liquidity issues and raised doubts on its ability to continue as a going concern.”
The group said it had made provisions for losses related to the Pakistan associated company, according to its filing to the Singapore Exchange.
Wilmar also disclosed that it had made compensation payments and provisions on the group’s Indonesia operations.
As always, I welcome tips and feedback. Have a good week ahead!
Best,
E