22/05/2026

BIZ & FINANCE FRIDAY | MAY 22, 2026 Danantara to honour commodity contracts, but

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VinFast’s move to shift US$7b in debt raises ‘red flags’

will review prices JAKARTA: Indonesian sovereign wealth fund Danantara will honour existing export contracts but will review them to make sure prices are not below market levels, its chief executive said yesterday as the fund prepared to take control of the country’s top commodity shipments. A unit of the fund will become the sole exporter of palm oil, coal and ferroalloys from as early as Sept 1, President Prabowo Subianto said on Wednesday, as his government sought tighter control over tax revenues and foreign exchange earnings from commodities. Danantara CEO Rosan Roeslani said that when the sovereign wealth fund has visibility on pricing, it may renegotiate prices that were set below global benchmarks. “We will respect all existing contracts. But what we see is that even though they are long-term contracts, the pricing is not determined at that time, but when the contract is running. Later, if we see a contract below prices at world market index, of course we will review it,“ Rosan told reporters. “If we see an indication of under-invoicing, of course we will re-evaluate such a contract.” There is a three-month transition period from June 1, which could be extended to six months, during which exporters must report the volume, value and price points of their goods to the unit, Danantara Sumber Daya Indonesia. Indonesia is the world’s biggest exporter of palm oil, thermal coal and nickel, and last year its exports of the three commodities amounted to US$65 billion. Prabowo’s plan aims to tackle concerns about under-invoicing and how exporters account for transfer pricing, but it has unsettled financial markets this week. Jakarta’s main stock index fell to its lowest level in more than a year yesterday, while the rupiah currency slid 0.4% to trade near a record low set on Wednesday. Authorities are due to brief companies and business groups about the new export mechanism later this week and implementing regulations would soon be issued by the Trade Ministry, its minister Budi Santoso said. Eddy Martono, chairman of palm oil companies’ association GAPKI, said his industry has a lot of questions, such as what happens when a buyer requests certain specifications for a shipment. “Exporters usually already have their own markets. We must ensure that we do not lose these markets due to poor management,” he said. The Indonesian Coal Mining Association was concerned about long-term contracts, specifications of coal quality, financing and other obligations, the group’s executive director Gita Mahyarani said. The Indonesian Nickel Industry Forum said it was awaiting the regulation documents and further explanation before making its impact assessment. – Reuters

factory transaction as both a buyer and a seller. VinFast will retain its assembly plants in Indonesia and India, along with patents for its newest generation of EVs. VinFast’s shares have fallen 12% since the deal was unveiled on May 12. Vingroup is controlled by Vuong and the firm does not have any large institutional investors. Dragon Capital, a foreign-owned, Vietnam-focused fund based in Ho Chi Minh City that is one of the few foreign investors in Vingroup, said the transaction was “a positive structural development” as it would cut debt and expenses. By outsourcing its manufacturing, a smaller EV maker like VinFast could focus its precious resources on areas that are more important, like developing better software, according to auto industry analyst Felipe Munoz. As part of the deal, the new owners can use VinFast’s plants to produce cars and batteries for third parties. One Vietnam-based financial analyst, who declined to be named, said it was possible that there was another manufacturer who was waiting in the wings to tie up with the new investors. In 2021, Vingroup said it was approached by Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn regarding VinFast’s production lines, but no deal materialised. “We have no plans to sell VinFast’s manufacturing facilities in Vietnam to Foxconn or any other original equipment manufacturer,” Vingroup said when asked about potential fresh talks. – Reuters

Trading Development (FIRD), a company that was carved out of VinFast and until January, was owned by Vingroup and Vuong. FIRD holds patents for VinFast’s first-generation EVs and has registered capital of $4.6 billion, nearly 92% of which is contributed by Nam. It is not clear why FIRD “became the lead buyer so soon after these ownership changes,” Jaouadi said. Vincom declined to comment. Reuters was unable to reach Nam for comment. In a statement, VinFast said it “was not a party to these transactions and therefore does not have the basis or authority to comment”. Another concern is the transaction structure. The manufacturing business will first be acquired by Vuong, FIRD and another firm, Ngoc Quy Investment and Trading Development, before the ownership is reshuffled again. Once the deal is completed by September, only two of the three investors will remain: FIRD, which will own 95.5%, and Vuong, who will retain less than 5%, according to the filing. The process “raises the question of the role and involvement” of Ngoc Quy Investment, Jaouadi said, since it will not ultimately hold a stake. The real estate company, whose name means “precious stone” in Vietnamese, declined to comment. Some of its shareholders have been business partners with Pham, according to a filing. Vuong will be participating in the

o EV maker to sell factories to local investors with ties to parent company

Singapore Telecommunications said it was looking for a “like-minded long term local partner owning a meaningful minority stake” in the Australian operator, which has been owned by Singtel for over 25 years and is Australia’s second-largest telecom firm. Optus has been under intense scrutiny over two back-to-back outages of an emergency number that affected thousands of users and were linked to four deaths. The incidents led to the departure of two senior executives, including its finance chief. Singtel said the sale process may entail engaging with local partners who bring the “expertise to improve service provision and quality.” It sold a stake in India’s Bharti Airtel for S$1.16 billion last year as a part of an ongoing asset restructuring strategy. In a separate statement on its annual results, Singtel said its planned 2027 spending would be about S$3 billion, with an extra S$1.2 billion allocated for data centres and AI-related purposes. Singtel said it was taking a more cautious approach to its near-term outlook and expected earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) growth to be in the low- to mid-single digits. HANOI: Over the last decade, Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast Auto has burned through billions of dollars on an aggressive expansion. Now, a plan to sell its two main factories and shift US$7 billion (RM28 billion) worth of debt off its books has sparked concerns about governance at billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong’s Vingroup conglomerate. Vuong, who got his start selling instant noodles in Ukraine in the 1990s, has built Vingroup into Vietnam’s largest company. Through it, he owns hotels, amusement parks and Nasdaq-listed VinFast. He has also developed a reputation for complex, intragroup transactions – Reuters previously detailed VinFast’s reliance on Vingroup-related companies for sales and financing. Under a multi-party deal unveiled last week, VinFast will sell its Vietnamese manufacturing business for 13.3 trillion dong (RM2 billion) to a group of investors who will also assume roughly US$6.9 billion in debt. In a regulatory filing, the company said this will allow it to adopt an “asset-light” model focused on research and product development rather than manufacturing. With the manufacturing unit off its

books, VinFast will become largely debt-free, Vingroup told Reuters in a statement. Manufacturing costs were a major driver of the EV maker’s US$3.9 billion loss last year and VinFast has yet to turn a profit since its 2017 founding. But the deal has raised eyebrows among some analysts and retail shareholders both for its complexity and the involvement of investors with ties to Vingroup and Vuong, the founder. “From a strategic and financial perspective, this move makes sense and provides a solid foundation for VinFast to grow,” said Mehdi Jaouadi, an auto industry analyst and partner at Singapore-based consultancy YCP. “However, from a governance perspective, this strategic decision has some red flags and raises some question marks.” One issue is the involvement of real estate businessman Nguyen Hoai Nam, who just this month took control of the company that will acquire more than 95% of the manufacturing business. Nam is a board member of Vincom Retail, which was formerly Vingroup’s shopping mall arm. Days before the factory deal was unveiled, he acquired majority control of Future Investment and

Singtel to sell minority stake in Australian unit SINGAPORE: Singtel said yesterday it was looking to sell a minority stake in its Australian unit Optus, and shared capital spending plans of S$4.2 billion (RM13 billion) in 2027.

A Singtel booth at the Money 20/20 Asia Fintech Trade Show in Singapore. – REUTERSPIC

billion in the previous year, but below a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of S$2.82 billion. It logged a nearly 9% rise in EBIT to S$1.50 billion in 2026. Singtel declared a final dividend of 10.3 Singapore cents per share, versus 10 Singapore cents apiece announced last year. – Reuters

term power contracts should help cushion the impact, but cautioned that currency volatility across its regional markets could weigh on translated earnings. Southeast Asia’s largest telecom operator posted an underlying net profit of S$2.77 billion for the year ended March 2026, up from S$2.47

While it has no direct operations in the Middle East, it said most of its key markets were net energy importers and exposed to global energy price swings, which could mean higher operating costs, softer consumer and business spending, and slower economic growth. The group said its existing long