Boston, MA — April 3, 2007 — Covington Associates LLC announced today that it acted as the exclusive sell-side advisor to TNCO (“TNCO”), an outsourced manufacturer of precision surgical instruments, in its sale to Symmetry Medical (NYSE: SMA), a leading medical device contract manufacturer to the orthopedic market. This transaction is Covington Associates’ fourth in the medical device contract manufacturing space.
TNCO, based in Whitman, MA, is a leading surgical equipment design, engineering and manufacturing company providing a wide range of instruments for arthroscopic, laparoscopic, nasal sinus surgery, and other minimally invasive procedures. TNCO serves the medical device industry with creative, timely and cost-effective solutions from the design stage through full-scale manufacturing. In a highly fragmented market space, Symmetry Medical holds one of the largest market shares. Larger players such as Symmetry are looking to add to their market shares, making it a very attractive time for a company like TNCO, which has full range of services but is small in scale, to pursue a sale to a larger strategic player. TNCO’s strong intellectual portfolio and customer relationships will extend Symmetry’s current range of offerings to the medical device market. More information about TNCO can be found by visiting http://www.tnco-inc.com.
Roger Burke, Founder of TNCO, said, “This is an exciting opportunity for the TNCO team to bring their expertise, instruments, and many new products to ever larger world-wide markets. TNCO is a great strategic match and outstanding value for Symmetry.”
David Anderson, a Vice President at Covington Associates and lead advisor to TNCO on the transaction, was quoted as saying “TNCO has an unrivaled history and reputation in the manufacture of precision surgical instruments. The combination of TNCO’s portfolio of patented designs and strong customer relationships with Symmetry’s scale and resources, positions the company at the forefront of surgical instrument design, development and manufacturing.”
About Symmetry Medical, Inc.
Symmetry Medical Inc. is an independent provider of implants and related instruments and cases to the orthopedic device industry. The Company also designs, develops and produces these products for companies in other segments of the medical device market, including dental, osteobiologic and endoscopy sectors and provides limited specialized products and services to non- healthcare markets, such as the aerospace market. Symmetry Medical operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and internationally. The company was founded n 1976 and is headquartered in Warsaw, IN. To learn more about Symmetry, visit www.symmetrymedical.com.
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.