Fitch to Confirm Federated Premier Intermediate Muni Income Fund Pfd Shares at 'AAA'.NEW YORK -- Fitch Ratings expects to confirm the 'AAA' ratings for Federated Connected and treated as one. See federated database and federated directories. Premier Intermediate Municipal Income Fund's (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : FPT) auction market preferred shares series A (AMPS) upon a redemption of certain AMPS with proceeds from floating rate certificates of tender-option bonds. The rating confirmation will be effective on the redemption date of March 30, 2008, at which time $9,000,000 of current $50,900,000 AMPS will be redeemed. The redemption will occur via procedures followed by the Depository Trust Company Depository Trust Company (DTC) DTC is the world's largest central securities depository. It accepts deposits of over 2 million equity and debt securities issues (valued at $23 trillion) from over 65 countries for custody, executes book-entry deliveries (valued at over $116 trillion . The fund is organized as a diversified, closed-end investment management company that commenced operations in December 2002. The fund's investment objective is to provide current income exempt from federal income tax, including alternative minimum tax. The Fund invests substantially all of its total assets in tax exempt securities. The Fund maintains a dollar-weighted average portfolio maturity of 3 to 10 years and a dollar-weighted average duration of 3 to 8 years. The confirmed ratings are based on the strength of the Fund's underlying portfolio that provide preferred stock liquidation coverage, as well as the quality and experience of the fund's investment manager, Federated Investors, Inc.. At the time of the ratings, the fund's proforma AMPS coverage ratios calculated in accordance with the Fitch Basic Maintenance Amount Test satisfied a minimum coverage ratio of at least 100%. Additionally, the Fund's pro-forma AMPS coverage ratios calculated in accordance with the requirements of the 1940 Act, as amended, satisfied regulatory requirements mandating an asset coverage ratio Asset Coverage Ratio A test that determines a company's ability to cover debt obligations with its assets after all liabilities have been satisfied. It is calculated as the following: of at least 200%. As of March 10, 2009, the fund's total leverage was approximately 39% of its total assets. Federated Investors, Inc. serves as investment manager for the fund. As of Dec. 31, 2008, Federated Investors, Inc. had approximately $407 billion in assets under management Assets Under Management (AUM) is a term used by financial services companies in the mutual fund and money management or investment management business to gauge how much money they are managing. . Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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