Latest news with #DaiKadomae
Nikkei Asia
29-07-2025
- Business
- Nikkei Asia
Thailand's nonperforming loans could spur costly Plan B for managing debt
Inside a shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand. Many smaller businesses are exploring alternatives like private credit. © Reuters Dai Kadomae, CFA, CPA, is a Thailand-based strategic finance adviser and former CFO with more than 25 years of cross-border M&A and capital market experience. Thailand is wrestling with sluggish consumption and rising debt, leaving smaller businesses increasingly vulnerable. While nonperforming loan (NPL) ratios remain around 2.7%, bad loans among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have surged past 7%, signaling growing financial strain. As banks pull back, global alternative funds are eyeing Thailand's distressed market for higher yields and diversification, though with significant risks. Yet deal flow remains thin.
Nikkei Asia
25-06-2025
- Business
- Nikkei Asia
ASEAN is no longer a passive recipient of global investment capital
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim delivers his speech as he officiates the ASEAN Investments Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia April 8, 2025. © Reuters Dai Kadomae, CFA, CPA, is a Thailand-based strategic finance adviser and former CFO with 25+ years of cross-border M&A and capital market experience. Capital has been quietly flowing out of Southeast Asia. In 2024 alone, the region's five key emerging economies -- Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines (sometimes collectively referred to as ASEAN-5) -- recorded net financial account outflows exceeding $4 billion, marking a structural break from nearly a decade of steady inflows. Since 2017, these ASEAN-5 economies have experienced a persistent decline in portfolio investment, based on balance of payments data from central banks and International Monetary Fund reports. Meanwhile, their once-resilient current account surpluses have begun to erode in the wake of COVID-19, exposing them to growing liquidity stress -- amplified by the Trump administration's stop-start trade policies.
