NEW YORK (Standard & Poor's) July 28, 2008--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services
said today that it assigned its highest principal stability fund rating (also
known as a money market rating) of 'AAAm' to the Investor Shares of the UBS
(Irl) Fund PLC - Select Reserves USD fund, which has maintained a 'AAAm'
rating since June 2002.
UBS (Irl) Fund PLC is an umbrella fund with segregated liability between
subfunds established as an open-ended investment company with variable capital
and incorporated under the laws of Ireland on Oct. 30, 1992. The objective of
Select Reserves USD is to earn maximum current income in U.S. dollar terms
consistent with liquidity and the preservation of capital in U.S. dollars. To
achieve this objective, the Fund invests in high-quality, short-term, U.S.
dollar-denominated debt securities of U.S. and non-U.S. governmental and other
money market instruments.
The investor shares in Select Reserves USD will be offered only to
investors meeting certain criteria through selected dealers as defined in the
prospectus. The investment manager is UBS Global Asset Management (Americas)
Inc., the custodian is J.P. Morgan Bank (Ireland) p.l.c., the administrator is
J.P. Morgan Administration Services (Ireland) Ltd., and the transfer agent is
PNC Global Investment Services (Europe) Ltd.
The 'AAAm' rating is based on our analysis of the fund's credit quality,
investment policies, market price exposure, and management. The rating
signifies an extremely strong capacity to maintain principal stability and to
limit exposure to principal losses due to credit, market, and/or liquidity
risks. The portfolio maintains high credit quality standards by investing at
least 50% of the assets in securities rated 'A-1+' by Standard & Poor's or
equivalent and a maximum of 50% in securities rated 'A-1'. To enhance
liquidity and diminish sensitivity to changing interest rates, the portfolios
seek to maintain a weighted average maturity of 60 days or less.
Complete ratings information is available to subscribers of
RatingsDirect, the real-time Web-based source for Standard & Poor's credit
ratings, research, and risk analysis, at www.ratingsdirect.com. All ratings
affected by this rating action can 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 Credit Ratings Search.
Analytic services provided by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services (Ratings Services) are the result of separate activities designed to preserve the independence and objectivity of ratings opinions. The credit ratings and observations contained herein are solely statements of opinion and not statements of fact or recommendations to purchase, hold, or sell any securities or make any other investment decisions. Accordingly, any user of the information contained herein should not rely on any credit rating or other opinion contained herein in making any investment decision. Ratings are based on information received by Ratings Services. Other divisions of Standard & Poor's may have information that is not available to Ratings Services. Standard & Poor's has established policies and procedures to maintain the confidentiality of non-public information received during the ratings process.
Ratings Services receives compensation for its ratings. Such compensation is normally paid either by the issuers of such securities or third parties participating in marketing the securities. While Standard & Poor's reserves the right to disseminate the rating, it receives no payment for doing so, except for subscriptions to its publications. Additional information about our ratings fees is available at www.standardandpoors.com/usratingsfees.
