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THE KINGDOM of Thailand is set to award the mandate for a return to the international capital markets next week. But its plans have been left hanging in the balance after the country failed to win an investment grade rating from Fitch IBCA and outstanding spreads widened as a result of renewed volatility across Asia. Bankers said that although the ministry of finance is poised to award mandates for its prospective $1bn to $2bn deal by the beginning of next week, it remains far from certain that the issue will go ahead as scheduled, should spreads come under greater pressure.

CREDIT Suisse First Boston led the charge of medium sized companies to the Frankfurt stockmarket this week, completing the sale of stock in Sauer, a manufacturer of mobile hydraulic parts. Like most recent mid cap offerings out of Germany, the deal was well received by investors and was around four times oversubscribed. Salesmen in London said management gave good presentations to potential buyers which are gearing up for a heavy calendar of new issues from Germany.

* Kingdom of Denmark Rating: Aa1/AA+ Amount: Dra10bn

HMV MEDIA completed its long awaited high yield bond this week after a delay of some weeks. The deal finally surfaced as a two tranche transaction comprising a £135m issue priced at 498bp over Gilts and a $125m issue priced at 450bp over Treasuries, which together raised the equivalent of £210m, £10m more than initially expected.

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* Sachsen Landesbank has set up a Eu5bn Euro-MTN programme in a move to diversify its investor base away from the domestic market. Merrill Lynch has arranged the programme. Joining Merrill Lynch in the dealer group are Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Nomura, Paribas, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, SBC Warburg Dillon Read and Salomon Smith Barney.

India National Thermal Power Corp's US dollar equivalent of DM53.984m loan has closed. Arrangers for the loan are Bank of America NT & SA (Singapore) pledging $7.5m, Crédit Agricole Indosuez taking $7m and Fuji Bank (Singapore) contributing $5m.

ING São Paulo made a spectacular debut in the Italian market this week with a blowout Lit200bn three year offering, despite widening Latin spreads in the dollar market. The deal, led by Credito Italiano and ING Barings, soared in the secondary market to 100.75 from a reoffer of 99.95, bringing in its 297bp launch spread over lira swaps to 253bp.

* World Bank Rating: Aaa/AAA

Argentina Arranger SBC Warburg Dillon Read has completed the $250m three year loan style FRN at 200bp over Libor for Banco de Galicia y Buenos Aires SA. BancAmerica Robertson Stephens is co-arranger and documentation agent. Dresdner Bank Luxembourg SA, Lehman Brothers Inc and Deutsche Bank AG are co-syndication agents. Bank of New York joined as lead manager.

MORGAN Stanley Dean Witter, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and Lehman Brothers will next week launch the sale of stock in SGS Thomson, a deal that together with a convertible bond issue will raise $2bn. The lead managers will complete the sale of straight equity quickly with bookbuilding to be finished by the end of the first week of June for pricing around June 4. Some 19m common shares will be sold but if the 15% greenshoe option is exercised the transaction will push around 14% of the company's equity on to the markets.