Fitch Affirms & Withdraws 8 Non-Financial Corporate Issuers' Short-Term Ratings

(Repeat for additional subscribers)

May 30 (Reuters) - (The following statement was released by the rating agency)

Fitch Ratings has affirmed and simultaneously withdrawn the Short-term Issuer Default Ratings of AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN - news) (F1+), Compass Group (Other OTC: CMPGF - news) PLC (F2), GlaxoSmithkline PLC (Other OTC: GLAXF - news) /GlaxoSmithKline Finance PLC (F1), Rolls-Royce Holdings plc (F1), Royal Philips (F1), Stora Enso Oyj (Xetra: ENUR.DE - news) (B), UPM (Taiwan OTC: 4752.TWO - news) -Kymmene Oyj (B) and United Utilities PLC (LSE: UU.L - news) /United Utilities Water PLC (F2).

The Short-term ratings are no longer considered by Fitch to be relevant to the agency's coverage. Fitch will continue to maintain coverage of all other ratings for these issuers.

Principal Analysts

Roma Patel (AstraZeneca PLC, GlaxoSmithKline PLC/GlaxoSmithKline Finance PLC)