Longship Capital Management today launched its Longship Multi-Strategy Debt Fund one of the first fund of fixed income hedge funds. The Fund targets returns of 12% per annum and annual standard deviation of less than 4%. The Fund will focus on low leverage and is designed to achieve its results in all interest rate environments.

Longship Capital Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Provident Group, announced the launch of its Longship Multi-Strategy Debt Fund. The Fund was created for investors seeking to efficiently allocate capital to dedicated fixed income hedge fund strategies that employ limited leverage, placing it in the company of only a handful of competing products. Key objectives include the generation of low levels of volatility and achievement of its target returns irrespective of interest rate trends.

The Longship Multi-Strategy Debt Fund targets returns in excess of 12% per annum and a standard deviation of less than 4.0%. The underlying fund managers were identified in April 2002 and analyzed over a 20-month observation period. During this pro forma period, the Fund placed in the top 20th percentile of nearly 300 fund of funds and in the top 4th percentile on a risk-adjusted basis, as identified by HFR. In 2003, the Fund produced a pro forma return of 12.05% with a standard deviation of 2.11%.

The Fund is a globally diversified vehicle currently deploying capital to several sectors including US Mortgage and Asset-Backed, High Yield, Distressed Debt, Emerging Markets Arbitrage and Local Currency Debt.

The Longship Multi-Strategy Debt Fund is managed by a team of senior fixed income professionals drawn from Lehman Brothers and Columbia Asset Management. Longship’s Chief Investment Officer, William Wadden, is a 20-year veteran fixed income portfolio manager who previously had oversight responsibility for $4 Billion in Collateralized Debt Obligations issued by Columbia and was a senior portfolio manager at Stein Roe & Farnham and Harris Trust. Other Investment Committee members include Steven Carlson, Todd Jorn, and Jim Roper, former Managing Directors with Lehman Brothers who headed several businesses including Global Emerging Markets Debt, the Global Hedge Fund Group, Mortgage Trading, Fixed Income Research and Asia Fixed Income Sales.

Mr. Wadden commented from Longship’s New York headquarters: “We are excited about launching the Longship Multi-Strategy Debt Fund after nearly two years of analysis, manager screening and due diligence. The Longship team strongly believes that the Fund provides investors with uncommon access to the broad diversity of strategies that comprise this asset class while simultaneously managing the complex array of risks that face fixed income investors.”

Provident Group is a specialized investment bank founded in 1998 which is focused on fixed income alternative assets, fixed income asset management and providing investment banking services including M&A, corporate finance and advisory to middle market clients.

For more information on the Longship Multi-Strategy Debt Fund please contact:

Investors

Chris Betz - Managing Director
212.742.1840 cbetz@provident-group.com

Mark Bishop - Managing Director
212.742.1871    mbishop@provident-group.com

Jim Roper - Managing Partner
212.742.9176    jroper@provident-group.com

Fund Managers

William Wadden - Chief Investment Officer
212.601.2414    bwadden@provident-group.com

For More information on Provident Group:

Steven Carlson - Managing Partner
212.742.1852    scarlson@provident-group.com

Todd Jorn - Managing Partner
212.742.9177    tjorn@provident-group.com