 | PARIS (Standard & Poor's) Feb. 3, 2009--Standard and Poor's Rating Services
said today that it lowered to 'A-1' from 'A-1+' its short-term credit rating
on two Luxembourg-domiciled, guaranteed funds, DWS Institutional Money Plus
and DWS Institutional USD Money Plus. These two funds are sponsored and
managed by DWS Investment S.A. The short-term 'A-1' rating reflects the
quality of the funds' overall structure and assets, as well as the funds'
ability to protect principal value, sustained by the creditworthiness of the
funds' guarantor, DWS Investment S.A.
On Dec. 19, 2008, we lowered the counterparty credit ratings on the
guarantor's parent company, Deutsche Bank AG to 'A+/A-1' from 'AA-/A-1+'. The
outlook on Deutsche Bank is stable. While the Deutsche Bank downgrade is the
primary trigger of our rating action on the funds, we have also taken into
consideration our subsequent discussions with the fund manager to review the
funds' credit quality and maturity profile as well as possible changes in the
funds' investment strategy and structure.
The funds provide an annual closeout system by which the net asset value
realized at the end of each 12 month period is formally guaranteed by DWS
Investment S.A. to be at least equal to the value established at the beginning
of that term. We assign the funds a short-term rating because the guarantee
runs for a period of one year or less.
The funds, which have been designed for institutional investors, aim to
provide an attractive alternative to bank deposits and other short-dated money
market investments. The portfolios are made up of bank time deposits, money
market instruments (such as European commercial paper and certificates of
deposit), and fixed income and floating rate securities, including 'AAA' rated
asset-backed securities and rated money market funds.
The funds maintain the credit quality of their portfolios at an overall
'AAf' level, which signifies that the funds' portfolio holdings and
counterparties provide very strong protection against losses from credit
defaults. Standard & Poor's monitors the funds on a monthly basis.
On Jan. 30, 2009, DWS Institutional Money Plus and DWS Institutional USD
Money Plus had respective fund sizes of €9.655 billion and $578 million. DWS
Investments (which is the mutual fund arm of Deutsche Asset Management, the
global asset management service division of Deutsche Bank) had €160 billion in
assets under management domiciled in Europe on Sept. 30, 2008, and is one of
the leading mutual fund groups in Europe.
Ratings information is available to RatingsDirect subscribers at
www.ratingsdirect.com. It can also be found on Standard & Poor's public Web
site at www.standardandpoors.com; select your preferred country or region,
then Ratings in the left navigation bar, followed by Find a Rating.
Alternatively, call one of the following Standard & Poor's numbers: Client
Support Europe (44) 20-7176-7176; London Press Office (44) 20-7176-3605; Paris
(33) 1-4420-6708; Frankfurt (49) 69-33-999-225; Stockholm (46) 8-440-5914; or
Moscow (7) 495-783-4017.
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