Barcroft Partnership merges with Westchester Associates

Westchester strengthened with addition of Barcroft Director - William Berrington

LONDON - July 1, 2003

Westchester Associates Limited (www.westchester.co.uk) today announced that it has just completed a merger with Barcroft Partnership Limited and that William Berrington, a director of Barcroft, will be joining Westchester effective as of today.

Westchester and Barcroft have a long history of mutual cooperation including the successful completion of several joint transactions. The success of these cooperative ventures and the opportunity to expand Westchester's breadth and depth of services were the reasons for this merger.

In addition to his extensive Technology M&A experience, having successfully completed 35 transactions during his career, William Berrington also brings to Westchester experience and expertise in arranging financing for acquisitions including management buyouts ("MBO's"). William is a Chartered Accountant and also holds an MBA.

Jeffrey Jenner, founder and Principal of Westchester commented, "the merger of Barcroft with Westchester and the addition of William Berrington to our team is the result of the track record of success William and I have developed in working together on a cooperative basis over the past four years. We recently decided to capitalize on this by merging Barcroft with Westchester". Jenner went on to add, "William will expand our capacity to service our clients in the Technology M&A arena and will add a new capability within Westchester which is to lead the effort to raise financing for Technology MBO's, which we have identified as a bona fide market requirement in the software and services sectors we serve".

Adding to these comments, William Berrington stated, "I am delighted to be joining Westchester and expect to make a significant contribution to the services we offer to clients, which will now also include the raising of capital for financing Technology MBO's. Westchester has a very respected and well-known name in the Technology M&A field in the UK and in the US with the establishment of Westchester Associates LLC in 2001. I am excited by the prospect of being able to participate fully in the development of the firm and delivering successful transactions for our clients".

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