Covington Associates Advises J-PAC, LLC in Sale to Riverside Partners

Boston, MA — January 10, 2006 — Covington Associates LLC announced today that it acted as the exclusive sell-side advisor to J-PAC LLC (“J-PAC”), a contract manufacturing and packaging company for the medical device industry in its sale to Riverside Partners LLC (“Riverside”), a Boston-based middle market private equity firm focused on technology and healthcare.   The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

J-PAC, based in Somersworth, NH is a world-class supplier of medical contract manufacturing, assembly, and packaging services.  J-PAC offers a range of services that starts with the package design, product prototyping and clinical trials leading to full scale medical device production.  J-PAC provides contract manufacturing services for medical devices, implantable textiles and contract packaging services for clients participating in a variety of market segments, including cardiovascular, orthopedics, general surgery and women’s health.

Ben Dunn, a Managing Director at Covington Associates and lead advisor to J-PAC on the transaction, was quoted as saying “J-PAC has made tremendous progress to become a major outsourcer for the medical device industry.  Riverside Partners provide additional resources to further accelerate J-PAC’s growth.”

Founded in 1989, Riverside Partners invests in leading healthcare and technology companies based in North America, with a particular focus on companies that are founder and family-owned. The partnership with Riverside will give J-PAC the capital needed to continue along its strong growth path and expand into new market areas.

About Covington Associates LLC

Covington Associates is a specialty investment banking firm founded in 1991 serving business service, consumer, industrial, healthcare and technology companies throughout the country.  Focused on mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity capital raising, debt and equity restructuring, and strategic advisory assignments for middle market companies, Covington Associates has completed transactions ranging in value from $10 million to over $1 billion for both private and publicly traded companies.  To learn more about Covington Associates, visit www.covingtonassociates.com.