Changes to the PruSelect Fund Range 2009

The fund previously held an OBSR AA Rating, which was suspended when Fidelity announced that Tim McCarron was taking time away from the industry. The management of the fund has passed to Sam Morse who will officially take over in January 2010. OBSR have met Mr Morse, who is an experienced fund manager, having run UK equity mandates for the past 15 years. However, he is new to the competitive European peer group and will be gradually positioning the fund to reflect his own style, which OBSR believe seems promising but is still too early to be certain in their view. With this in mind, OBSR have decided to remove the fund's Rating but OBSR will continue to meet with Mr Morse regularly to monitor the fund's progress.

The fund is now managed by Tim Steer, who along with Stephen Yiu, joined Artemis in June 2009 from New Star. Having enjoyed an open discussion as he settled in and repositioned the fund, OBSR have gained a sufficient level of conviction to enable them to re-introduce the Rating at A.

The fund previously held an OBSR AA Rating. OBSR acknowledge that the fund has an impressive longer-term performance profile, but they feel that given the deterioration in the performance profile versus the index and relevant peers since mid-2007, their conviction has moderated and that an A Rating is more appropriate.

The fund was suspended in December 2008 following the departure of the previous manager, Stewart Cowley. While the new manager, Paul Brain is experienced in managing global bond mandates, the OBSR preference is to remove the Rating at this stage and monitor the fund's progress under Mr Brain's stewardship.

The fund previously held an A Rating. OBSR feel that since the managers, Jonathan Waghorn and Mark Lacey took over the fund in March 2008, they have demonstrated strong risk adjusted performance. Their considered approach, in-depth experience and knowledge of this specialist area has enabled them to navigate difficult market conditions with success and therefore, OBSR believe an AA Rating is a more appropriate reflection of our conviction in their ability to deliver attractive returns over the longer term.

OBSR explain that the Henderson Preference and Bond fund offers investors a mixed bond fund, more than half of which is held in corporate bonds, with the fund's highly-experienced fund manager also using convertible issues and preference shares where he identifies added-value opportunities. The investment process is disciplined, combining top-down analysis of markets and interest rate trends with fundamental analysis of credit risk.

OBSR explain that this fund offers investors an actively-managed, best ideas UK equity portfolio. The fund will be concentrated in nature and invested across the market-cap spectrum, with a bias to mid and large cap companies and with no predetermined style bias.

OBSR explain that the fund management team believes that, through tactically allocating assets between a number of different asset classes and through unconstrained stock selection within those asset classes, it can achieve steady returns with modest downside volatility, together with an asymmetric risk profile.

OBSR explain that this fund offers investors an unfettered fund of funds constructed to achieve a balance between capital growth and a reasonable level of income. The fund will be managed with reference to the IMA Balanced funds sector average. The majority of returns are expected to be generated from fund selection, augmented by incremental returns from asset allocation.

This fund has previously had its OBSR rating removed. Find out more.

Although this fund is being removed from the PruSelect fund range at this time it is still available for existing and new customers.

They suspended the Ratings in May following the change of fund manager from Ted Scott and Hilary Aldridge to Catherine Stanley. Ms Stanley is the manager of the F&C UK Smaller Companies fund and they have decided to remove the Ratings whilst she builds up her own track record on this specialist fund.

The Prudential funds that invest in this AEGON fund will have their name changed in due course.

The transition is expected to take place in 2010 and Roger Guy and Guillaume Rambourg will continue to manage the funds until then.

John Bennett is currently the manager of the GAM Star Continental European Equity fund, which was rated A within the OBSR Global Fund Ratings universe. OBSR will maintain a dialogue with Gartmore during this process.

The Prudential funds that invest in this Schroder fund will have their name changed in due course.

The fund previously held an OBSR A Rating. It has been managed since launch in March 2007 by Audrey Ryan, who has also managed the OBSR AA Rated AEGON Ethical Equity fund since January 2000. Ms Ryan runs the UK Opportunities fund using a similar approach to that employed for the Ethical Equity fund but with greater flexibility and without the ethical mandate restrictions. OBSR have high regard for the manager and her diligent investment approach which is utilised in the management of both funds and having followed the UK Opportunities fund since launch, they have decided that an AA Rating is a truer reflection of their conviction in her abilities.

It has been managed by Richard Plackett since June 2004, who has also managed the OBSR AAA Rated BlackRock UK Smaller Companies fund since December 2002 using the same investment philosophy and approach. This upgrade is in acknowledgement of their high conviction in this experienced fund manager and his proven ability to deliver attractive relative returns through this all cap fund in a variety of market conditions.

OBSR acknowledge that the fund has had an impressive performance profile since its launch in November 1999, but they feel that given the deterioration in the performance profile versus the index and relevant peers since mid-2007, their conviction has moderated and that an AA Rating is more appropriate.

The fund's AA Rating was suspended in December 2008 following the announcement of the manager, Les Jones', retirement.The management of the fund has been passed to Old Mutual's Quantitative Strategies team. OBSR have met with the team and at the present time, they do not have sufficient conviction or a long enough track record to be able to award a Rating.

The fund previously held an OBSR AA Rating. It has been announced that the current fund manager, Adrian Paterson, is to step down at the end of June and will pass the management of the fund to Tim Steer, who is joining Artemis from New Star. Mr Steer previously managed their AA Rated New Star UK Alpha fund. In light of this change, OBSR believe that the Rating should be suspended until they have been able to meet with Mr Steer to establish his plans for the fund.

The fund previously held an A Rating. The fund is managed by Allan Liu, an experienced manager, based in the region. The investment approach is flexible and the emphasis is primarily on bottom-up stock selection with some consideration of top-down influences.

OBSR plans to meet with Ms Stanley as soon as possible to discuss her plans for the fund going forward.

The fund previously held an AAA Rating. The fund will now be managed by Stephen Thariyan and Philip Payne, two of Henderson's investment grade bond managers. OBSR will be meeting the managers in due course to discuss their plans for the fund.

The fund previously held an AA Rating. This upgrade is in acknowledgement of the strong qualitative opinion OBSR have of the manager, Jenny B Jones, who has managed this fund since its launch in April 2005. She has a significant amount of experience and has also built up a strong team around her at Schroders. She has a clearly articulated process and a focus on limiting the downside risk of the portfolio. OBSR believe this risk aware approach to portfolio construction has stood the fund in good stead and its performance versus its benchmark has been excellent over time.

Given that there is no change to the structure of the fund at this stage, they have maintained the AA Rating and will reconsider this following further information through their dialogue with the fund manager.

Evy Hambro will be managing the fund in his absence. Mr Hambro is well known to OBSR as he is the co-manager with Mr Birch on the BGF World Gold fund and they have worked closely together for the past 10 years. Taking these factors into consideration, OBSR have confirmed they are happy to retain the AAA Rating.

OBSR has taken the decision to remove the AA Rating from the New Star UK Alpha fund with immediate effect.

The fund previously held an AAA Rating. While OBSR acknowledge the difficult and extraordinary events affecting investment grade bond markets and in particular the problems associated with liquidity, they do not believe that the manager, Stephen Snowden, has handled the downside risk of the portfolio well. They have therefore decided that an AA Rating is a fairer reflection of their degree of conviction in the manager.

The fund previously held an AA Rating. OBSR believe that given the nature of the mandate, which combines top-down considerations with bottom-up stock selection, the fund's performance in the past few years has been disappointing. OBSR have decided that an A Rating is a truer reflection of their conviction in the fund manager and his approach.

The fund had previously held a AAA Rating. OBSR acknowledge that the fund manager, Mr Luckraft, typically invests across the market cap spectrum, using his significant experience and knowledge of small caps to invest in stocks that provide higher growth prospects.

Furthermore, that he is very focused on the yield objectives of the fund. This approach has not been rewarded in the recent environment but OBSR also note that the manager underestimated the scale of the recent financial and economic problems and given the fund structure, this also contributed to the decline in the fund performance profiles.

OBSR have now decided that a AA Rating is more appropriate when taking into account the extent and the duration of the underperformance, together with their revised level of conviction.

The fund previously held a AAA Rating. As OBSR have previously publicised, Richard Watts, an experienced member of the Mid and Small Cap Team, took over as named manager from Ashton Bradbury at the start of 2009. Mr Bradbury retains an input into the overall process as Head of Equities and as chair of the monthly investment strategy meetings, where he communicates his top down economic and market views.

While OBSR have a strong level of conviction in the abilities of Mr Watts having known him for some time now, they believe that an AA Rating is more appropriate at this time, given this structural change.