Standard & Poor's Ratings Services assigned a 'AAAm' money-market rating to Invesco Aim's Short-Term Investments Co. (Global Series) Plc - U.S. Dollar Treasury Portfolio scheduled to launch on Aug. 18, 2008. The AAA is based on S&P's "analysis of the fund's credit quality, market price exposure, and management." Since the liquidity squeeze began a year ago, a number of new AAA-rated Treasury funds have launched, particularly in the "offshore" space.
Other AAA-rated, Dublin- or Cayman-domiciled "U.S.-style" Treasury money market funds include: BNY Mellon US Treasury, Federated US Treasury Securities, Goldman Sachs Treasury Liquid Reserves, JPMorgan Treasury, and Western Asset US Treasury Reserves. See Crane Data's April 1 News article, "Demand for Offshore Money Fund, Local Govt Inv Pool Ratings Jumps" and S&P's "AAAm Principal Stability Funds Continue To Enjoy Tremendous Growth In Europe".
The new STIC Global PLC fund "is an investment company with variable capital incorporated in Ireland in 1995 and established as an umbrella fund under UCITS regulations." The company now offers four subfunds: a US Dollar Portfolio, a Sterling Portfolio, a Euro Portfolio, and now a US Dollar Treasury Portfolio.
S&P's release says, "The STIC U.S. Dollar Treasury Portfolio's investment objective is to provide as high a level of current income in US Dollars as is consistent with the preservation of capital and liquidity by investing in direct obligations of the U.S. Treasury. The fund consists of five share classes: Corporate, Command, Select, Institutional, and Reserve."
