DBRS Rates SNP Split Corp. at Pfd-2 (low)

Dominion Bond Rating Service (“DBRS”) has today assigned a new rating to the Class B, Preferred Shares, Series 1 (“Preferred Shares”) issued by SNP Split Corp. (the “Company”). On April 17, 2006, the Capital Shareholders approved a proposal to reorganize the Company, to extend the redemption of the Capital Shares to June 4, 2011, and to issue the new Preferred Shares while redeeming the original preferred shares. As a result of this reorganization, the Company has issued US$28.6 million of Preferred Shares (2.79 million shares at US$10.25 each) and approximately US$23.2 million of Capital Shares (5.6 million shares at US$4.15 each) to provide downside protection of 45% to the Preferred Shares. The Redemption Date will be June 4, 2011.

It is expected that, on an annual basis, approximately 1.25% of the Portfolio value will have to be liquidated in order to meet the distributions to the Preferred Shares and the expenses of the Company. In the absence of capital gains and holding all other factors constant, this may provide a potential grind of over 6.25% to the net asset value of the portfolio or a grind of about 3.7% to the initial downside protection over the life of this transaction. The primary constraints to the rating of the Preferred Shares are the Company’s dependence on the value of the portfolio, and the Company’s ongoing dependence on liquidation of the portfolio in order to pay for expenses and Preferred Share dividends.