📰 Weekly Roundup (27 Jan-2 Feb 2026): Indonesia’s Strongman Part 2 & 3 | Danantara’s War Chest | Vietnam’s Risk Zone | Singapore’s Missing Cars | Bright Spot #13 | Singapore’s Fengshui Mallster
Weekly newsletter
Dear Valued Contacts,
It’s been a volatile time in Indonesia.
📒 Quick Take: Indonesia’s Strongman Part One (21 January 2026)
📒 Quick Take: Indonesia’s Strongman Part Two (27 January 2026)
📒 Quick Take: Indonesia’s Strongman Part Three (1 February 2026)
👟 Walk the Talk: Danantara’s War Chest (30 January 2026)
I wrote on 21 January that President Prabowo Subianto has been tightening his grip over Indonesia’s financial guardians, SOEs and resources sector. A week later, Indonesian stocks suffered their worst two-day rout in nearly three decades as a potential MSCI downgrade added to investor concerns about a growing centralization.
Over the weekend, Indonesian bankers were jolted by Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin’s comment that the president would revamp the boards of state-owned lenders. I flagged that the pressure on state-owned banks and local tycoons to step up their national service may create a chilling effect that restricts flows to the broader economy.
Meanwhile, Indonesian sovereign fund Danantara has closed a USD 1 billion-equivalent syndicated loan from more than two dozen foreign banks. I unpacked why the banks likely signed on and how this fit into Danantara’s fundraising trajectory.
💼 Brief Take: Vietnam’s Risk Zone (29 January 2026)
I wrote that Vietnam’s property sector is likely to be a risk zone for banks, which are exposed to both the developers and their owners.
After a crackdown on corporate bond issuances took local noteholders out of the refinancing game, the banks and offshore investors risked holding the bag if the music stops. These risks are amplified by the prolific use of standby letters of credit.
💼 Brief Take: Singapore’s Missing Cars (29 January 2026)
Singapore car rental group Autobahn allegedly obtained double financing, whereby it borrowed to purchase cars and then used these vehicles to get fresh financing even though the first loan was not repaid yet.
Given that the same collateral was pledged to multiple financiers, this creates uncertainty on which lender would have the recognized claim over the asset. But right now creditors have a bigger problem in their hands: 266 cars already went missing.
☀️ Bright Spot #13 (30 January 2026)
Despite the bad news out of Indonesia, there was a bright spot as Digital Edge reportedly plans to invest USD 4.5 billion to build a data center campus. In Singapore, the Ministry of Law revamped its insolvency program to make winding-up and restructuring processes more accessible.
The latest On the Move included appointments at MUFG, Howden and Virtus Law. PwC Malaysia also interviewed Orion Capital Asia Senior Managing Director Chwee Sing Koo on the private credit trends in Southeast Asia.
📝 Off Grid 2: Singapore’s Fengshui Mallster (31 January 2026)
In the second Off Grid, I wrote that a Fengshui master has cornered the shopping malls in Singapore, where fortune-telling is a multi-million-dollar business. The Fengshui Mallster has shown marketing foresight by supplying his predictions to multiple retail outlets and converting some of the foot traffic into paying clients.
🔤 ABCDE Reporting (1 February 2026)
A couple of weeks ago, I had lunch with a credit friend who shared her frustration at what she called “ABCDE reporting”.
“I look at A, B, C, D, E – but what does it mean?”
This is a common predicament because a popular model is to scale up and pump out volume to justify the pricing. But the signal-to-noise ratio is low if readers still can’t see the bigger picture after being sprayed with news fragments.