Press Release

ARMADA FUNDS INTRODUCES NEW SMALL/MID CAP VALUE FUND
Spans Attractive Small-to-Mid Sector

Cleveland, July 3, 2002 – Armada Funds has introduced the new Armada Small/Mid Cap Value Fund. Spanning the small-cap and mid-cap portions of the U.S. stock market, the new Fund has been designed to pursue capital appreciation by focusing on companies with market values of $500 million to $5 billion.

“This strategy positions the Fund to capitalize on ‘the high side of small and the low side of mid’ within the broad small-mid capitalization range of $250 million to $10 billion,” said Daniel Bandi, CFA, Managing Director of Equity, Armada Funds, National City Investment Management Company (IMC).

Bandi noted that at present only six of the more than 1,900 funds in Lipper’s Small-Cap and Mid-Cap value and growth categories label themselves as small-mid funds.

“Armada Small/Mid Cap Value Fund provides investment advisors with a product for their clients that taps into the potential of the small-to-mid sector which can potentially provide more total return than a typical mid-cap value fund and do it with less volatility than a typical small-cap value fund,” said Bandi.

Armada Small/Mid Cap Value Fund is suitable for nearly any well-rounded portfolio where investors have an investment horizon of five years or more, want to add a small-cap value position, or are attracted to the potential of small-caps but seek less volatility. The Fund is also suitable for tax-deferred retirement accounts such as Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), employer-sponsored 401(k)’s and other plans.

Armada Small/Mid Cap Value Fund is managed with IMC’s two-phase approach to assessing value equities called “Good Value. Good News.”

“Good Value: Good News” is a two-part process, which first gauges statistical cheapness by screening the available universe for stocks with low price-to-earnings, price-to-book, price-to-cash-flow, and price-to-sales-ratios. Next, the team conducts fundamental analysis of each of those statistically cheap stocks to identify those that are truly undervalued and appear to have the potential to deliver superior return over time.

For each stock that passes the “Good Value” phase of the process, the team then searches for a “Good News” catalyst that would change investor sentiment to be more bullish on the stock. Three leading catalysts are: improving or positive earnings-estimate revisions; a new product cycle; or divestment of a low-return part of the business and reinvestment of the cash into the core business or a better-returning business or share buy-back.

Armada Small/Mid Cap Value Fund management team includes: Daniel G. Bandi; Adam I. Friedman, Senior Portfolio Manager; Michael E. Santelli, CFA, CPA, Senior Portfolio Manager; and Daniel J. DeMonica, CFA, Portfolio Manager

Armada Funds, with 31 mutual funds and assets of more than $17.5 billion is managed by National City Investment Management Company (IMC), a wholly-owned, indirect subsidiary of National City Corporation (NYSE: NCC). IMC has more than $29 billion in assets under management. Armada Funds include 11 equity funds, 10 taxable and tax-exempt bond funds, seven taxable and tax-exempt money market funds and three asset allocation funds. For more information, visit Armada Funds’ Web-site at http://www.armadafunds.com. IMC receives an investment advisory fee for managing Armada Funds.