ARMADA FUNDS INTRODUCES NEW SMALL CAP CORE FUND Well Known Fund Managers Deliver Unique Small Cap Product
Cleveland, OH, April 7, 2004 – Armada Funds announced today that it is introducing a new Small Cap Core Fund to its family of mutual funds, further emphasizing Armada’s commitment to deliver quality investment management products to investment professionals and shareholders.
Geared towards aggressive investors who are willing to accept greater risk in the pursuit of potentially higher investment returns, Armada Small Cap Core Fund’s management team uses a “true core” approach, seeking attractive companies between $100 million -$3 billion in market capitalization, across the entire small cap landscape – including both value- and growth-oriented domestic small cap stocks. Armada Small Cap Core Fund’s investment objective is to provide capital appreciation by investing in a diversified portfolio of publicly traded small cap equity securities.
Armada Small Cap Core Fund is managed by Armada’s small cap core team sub-advised by Allegiant Investment Counselors Incorporated (“AICI,”) based in St. Louis, MO. This team has worked together for 10 years, and their money management style has been applied and tested through a variety of market environments over the past 30 years. In 2004, AICI became a wholly owned subsidiary of National City.
The team’s investment process values economic performance over accounting performance and profitability over reported earnings. The process focuses on Cash Flow Return on Investment, CFROI®.* CFROI is calculated in percentage terms by dividing Gross Cash Flow by Gross Cash investment. An inflation-adjusted measure of corporate performance, it attempts to reduce accounting distortions and allows for more accurate comparisons between companies in different industries and sectors. CFROI is well-suited for analysis of small companies which often focus on a few products. The team believes that CFROI can be a more accurate predictor of future value than conventional earnings-per-share analysis.
“Our focus on Armada Small Cap Core Fund is stock selection, with an emphasis on improving cash flow rates of return,” states Gordon Johnson, President and Chief Investment Officer of the sub-advisor AICI. “We examine fundamental and quantitative characteristics of the small cap universe along with management’s commitment to reinvest into a company in order to seek the best risk-adjusted portfolio with potentially greater returns.”
“Armada is pleased to provide another solution to investment professionals and shareholders,” said Anne Rapacz-Kimmins, SVP, Director of Product and Marketing at Armada Funds. “The new small cap core fund is a timely addition to our product line-up as small cap stocks have performed well and still have attractive relative valuations. Additionally, investors looking for small cap exposure in their portfolio needn’t worry about choosing between growth and value.”
The Armada Small Cap Core Fund is suitable for investors seeking to add a small-cap component to their portfolio. The Fund is not intended to be a complete investment program by itself. Investors are reminded that securities of small capitalization companies are subject to more risk, such as greater volatility and less liquidity, than the securities of large capitalization companies.
Important Fund Information on the Armada Small Cap Core Fund:
Class A Shares
Class B Shares
Class C Shares
Class I Shares
Cusip Number
04208P569
04208P551
04208P544
04208P536
Fund Number
2110
2111
2112
2114
Front-End Sales Charge
5.50% maximum
None
None
None
Minimum Inv.
Initial
Via Planned Investment Program
$500
$50 initial/ $50 monthly
$500
$500 initial/ $50 monthly
$500
$50 initial/ $50 monthly
None
Benchmark
Russell 2000™
Russell 2000™
Russell 2000™
Russell 2000™
For more information on the Armada Small Cap Core Fund or any of the Armada Funds, please contact 1-800-622-FUND (3863) or access www.armadafunds.com. You should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the Armada Funds carefully before investing. A prospectus with this and other information about the Funds may be obtained by contacting an Investment Professional, calling 1-800-622-FUND (3863) or downloading one at www.armadafunds.com. Read it carefully before investing.
Not FDIC Insured. No Bank Guarantee. May Lose Value.
*CFROI is a trademark of CSFB Holt
About Armada
Armada Funds, with over 30 mutual funds and assets of more than $15 billion is managed by National City Investment Management Company (NCIMC,) a wholly-owned, indirect subsidiary of National City Corporation (NYSE: NCC.) NCIMC has more than $29 billion in assets under management.
National City Investment Management Company serves as investment adviser to the Armada Funds, for which it receives an investment advisory fee. Armada Funds are distributed by Professional Funds Distributor, LLC (PFD,) 760 Moore Road, King of Prussia, PA 19406. PFD is not affiliated with IMC and is not a bank.
Commentaries are now available as print-ready or printable PDF files.
NOT FDIC INSURED · NO BANK GUARANTEE · MAY LOSE VALUE
You should consider the investment objectives, risks,
charges and expenses of the Armada Funds carefully before investing. A prospectus may be downloaded and viewed with
this and other information about the Funds or may be obtained by contacting an
investment professional or by calling 1-800-622-FUND (3863.) Please read it
carefully before you invest or send money.
National City Investment
Management Company (IMC) serves as investment adviser to Armada Funds for which
it receives an investment advisory fee. Shares of Armada Funds are distributed
by Professional Funds Distributor, LLC (PFD), 760 Moore Road, King of Prussia,
PA 19406. PFD is not affiliated with IMC and is not a bank.
