The Pluris Valuation Advisors ARS Holders Survey has been compiled through searches of public filings as of August 31, 2008. For most of the holders in this survey - all public companies - the data includes their holdings through the second quarter of 2008, and their accounting treatment of themtheir accounting treatment of them.

Based on the survey, we conclude:

• In total, Pluris found 582 ARS holders, with a total par value of their ARS holdings of $35.34 billion. In this survey, 386 of the ARS holders had taken a write-down of these investments, while 196 continue to account for their Auction-Rate securities at the full par value. The total amount of impairment for the 386 that took a write-down was $2.54 billion.
• Overall, the data indicates that at this date, the full impact of the loss of liquidity from this market has not been fully realized by all the holders. One should bear in mind that wide-spread ARS auction failures began in mid-February of 2008. Therefore, it is not unreasonable for companies to continue to take time to analyze the issue and the impact of the problem on values. Compounding the problem is the fact that, for many investors, the connection between liquidity and valuation is not entirely intuitive. Most investors think of impairments as something that results from a deterioration in credit quality - an increase in default risk - and would not automatically associate a reduction in liquidity with a drop in value. The recent buyback announcements, mainly affecting retail clients of the primary dealers may also have created a false sense of security for institutional investorsaffecting retail clients of the primary dealers, may also have created a false sense of security for institutional investors.
• Nevertheless, both market evidence and the stance of the Big 4 auditing firms convince us that we will likely see further write-downs in coming quarters.
• Furthermore, the differences in opinions displayed here is staggering: from 68-98% discounts for the firms making the most aggressive adjustments, to zero discounts for approximately one- third of the firms surveyed. SLARS holders are more likely to take a discount than holders of other kinds of ARS.

To request a free copy of our ARS Holders Study, please fill out this form and click "submit"
	* Required fields
First Name:*
Last Name:*
Company:*
Address:*
Email:*
Please no gmail, yahoo.com, hotmail, ... addresses. Only valid business e-mail addresses will be honored.

Note: The Pluris ARS Holders Survey will be updated frequently and will monitor any changes in how corporate ARS holders account for their frozen holdings. Check back often for updated information.