Losing sight of the forest for the trees

  • 11/12/2000

  • Asian Wall Street Journal (Hong Kong)

Last March, Asia Pulp & Paper, the world's largest emerging market corporate debtor, suspended payments of interest and principal on roughly $13.4 billion on outstanding obligations. App's massive default has brought to an abrupt halt the seven-fold expansion of Indonesia's pulp and paper sector over the past decade. However, the scale of the problem may not be fully understood yet. The growth of Indonesia's paper industry shows what happens when investors don't grasp the fundamentals.