Standard & Poor's Rates North Carolina State LGIP AAAm.NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Standard & Poor's CreditWire 10/28/98-- Standard & Poor's assigned its triple-'Am' rating to the North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. Capital Management Trust - Cash Portfolio (LGIP LGIP Local Government Investment Pool ). In assigning the rating, Standard & Poor's cited the pool's excellent safety of invested principal and a superior capacity to maintain a $1.00 per share net asset value at all times. The North Carolina state local government investment pool will become part of the S&P Rated LGIP Index, which is the only weekly performance benchmark of public investment pools. LGIPs have existed for many years and typically are not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Investment Company Act of 1940; the North Carolina LGIP is SEC registered. In addition to North Carolina, Standard & Poor's now rates 53 local government investment pools, including, among others, Ohio, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Georgia, Illinois, and Virginia; total assets of all rated pools approximate $43 billion. Standard & Poor's has seen its pool ratings increase dramatically over the past couple of years due to an increased focus on investment risk and recently enacted accounting and financial reporting guidelines (Government Accounting Standards Board The role of the Accounting Standards Board (ASB) is to issue accounting standards in the United Kingdom. It is recognised for that purpose under the Companies Act 1985. It took over the task of setting accounting standards from the Accounting Standards Committee (ASC) in 1990. Statement 31). With GASB GASB Governmental Accounting Standards Board 31 taking effect, some pools are viewing ratings and portfolio monitoring services The general surveillance of known air traffic movements by reference to a radar scope presentation or other means, for the purpose of passing advisory information concerning conflicting traffic or providing navigational assistance. as a way to monitor their investment guidelines. "Public investors continue to enjoy third-party oversight and high levels of safety that ratings provide," said Walter Dillingham, director in Standard & Poor's Managed Funds Group. "Safety-conscious public investors often seek out triple-'Am' rated pools for their operating cash, while ratings often help pools compete with money market funds." Mr. Dillingham added that "some states, such as New Jersey and Texas, mandate that public pools in their states be rated." Mr. Dillingham also noted that some pools use the rating to attract a more diverse investor base. (See Standard & Poor's publication entitled Local Government Investment Pools, April 1998.) The North Carolina Capital Management Trust is an open-end management investment company organized as a Massachusetts business trust A Massachusetts business trust or MBT is a legal trust set up for the purposes of business in the state of Massachusetts. They may also be referred to as an unincorporated business organization or UBO. . The trust is comprised of the Cash Portfolio and Term Portfolio. The rating applies to the trust's Cash Portfolio only. Shares of the portfolio are offered exclusively to the following entities of the state of North Carolina: local governments and public authorities (as defined in North Carolina General Statute 159-7); school administrative units; local ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. boards; and community colleges or public hospitals. Generally, local government investment pools exist to provide safe, short-term investment vehicles for government revenues. Likewise, the specific objectives of the trust are to provide safety of principal, current income, and to obtain as high a level of current income as consistent with the preservation of capital Preservation of Capital An investment strategy whose primary goal is to prevent the loss of an investment's total value. Notes: For investors using the capital preservation strategy to achieve their goal, they must ensure their portfolio is producing a return that is at and liquidity. The North Carolina Capital Management Trust - Cash Portfolio is managed by Fidelity Management & Research Co. (FMR FMR Former (government official title) FMR Fair Market Rents (HUD) FMR Financial Management Regulation FMR Friends of the Mississippi River (watershed conservancy) ), which chooses to handle the pool's investments and business affairs. Fidelity Investments Fidelity Investments is a group of privately held companies in the financial services industry. It is made up by two independent but closely cooperating companies, Fidelity Management and Research Corporation (FMR Co. Money Management Inc. has primary responsibility for providing investment management services for the portfolio. Sterling Capital Distributors Inc., Charlotte, N.C. acts as distribution agent of shares for the North Carolina Capital Management Trust - Cash Portfolio and the North Carolina Capital Management Trust - Term Portfolio. In addition to the North Carolina pool, FMR currently manages six other triple-'Am' rated funds. As of June 30, 1998, FMR advised funds having approximately 38 million shareholder accounts with a total value of more than $631 billion. In order to meet their investment objectives, the North Carolina Capital Management Trust - Cash Portfolio will invest only in those high-grade money market instruments Money market instruments See: Cash investments that are authorized for investment by units of local government as specified in North Carolina General Statute 159-30. The pool will use its best efforts to maintain a constant net asset value per share of $1.00, Standard & Poor's said. -- CreditWire |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion