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THAILAND is laying plans to return to the international capital markets in the coming two months with the world's largest ever bond issue. The financing will bolster depleted foreign exchange reserves, provide funds for financial restructuring and, if successful, help restore the country's battered reputation in the international markets.

UNIBANCO and Votorantim this week struggled to raise interest for their bond issues as Brazil's current account deficit and overvalued Real continued to taint market sentiment. Unibanco launched a $100m one year Eurobond at 75bp over one year Libor and Votorantim issued $50m worth of three year notes at 219bp. Both deals were led by Société Générale.

* Abbey National Treasury Services plc Guarantor: Abbey National plc

Citibank and Bank of America NT&SA have completed a $1.2bn loan for Queeny Chemical Co. The facility is split into a five year $800m revolver and a 364 day $400m revolver. Pricing is based on the company's debt rating. The Libor margin range for the $800m loan ranges from 13.5bp to 22.5bp and the facility fee range is 6.5bp to 17.5bp. The Libor margin range for the $400m loan ranges from 20bp to 40bp and the facility fee is set at 8bp.

Corporates Lloyds Bank Capital Markets Group has been mandated to arrange financing to support the proposed acquisition of Newsquest's Wessex subsidiary by Bristol United Press plc.

* Bank of Western Australia Ltd Rating: A1/AA

A SLIGHT tightening in swap spreads lightened the gloom marginally on Thursday but failed to alleviate the general despondency in the Eurodollar market. Comments of "melt-down" and "bloodbath" were on the lips of many market participants, with one leading syndicate head describing the dollar market as being in the worst state he had ever seen.

* Lead manager Smith Barney has launched a sale of stock for insurance group SAFECO Corp. The deal, valued at $518m, is expected to be priced early next week and is attracting strong interest from US and international investors. Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Fox-Pitt Kelton are co-lead managers. The stock is listed on Nasdaq and the shares were trading at $51 when the deal was announced. A total of 12m shares are being offered with 10m being targeted at US investors.

THE KINGDOM of Belgium announced plans this week to issue domestic bonds denominated in Deutschmarks and French francs in an attempt to promote wider international investor interest in its government market before monetary union. The two lines of linear bonds (OLOs) are likely to come to the market towards the end of this month or at the beginning of November, following an exhaustive selection process for the management group and an auction of Belgian franc denominated OLOs, with which the Deutschmark and French franc lines will become fungible after monetary union.

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Argentina The $210m capital markets bridge facility being arranged by JP Morgan and co-arranger BankBoston NA to fund Transener's purchase of the ESEBA fourth transmission line, was signed on Tuesday.