Holding(s) in Company

Ashtead Group PLC
18 February 2005


Ashtead Group plc
18th February 2005

                               ASHTEAD GROUP PLC

                             Ordinary Shares of 10p

Ashtead Group plc announces it has today been advised by The Goldman Sachs Group
Inc., ('GS Inc') that as at 16th February 2005 it was interested in a total of
24,000,339 (or 7.36%) of its shares comprising:
     
a)   an interest in 7,898,700 shares arising from the interest held by Goldman 
     Sachs & Co., a wholly-owned direct subsidiary of GS Inc, acting as
     custodian. These shares are, or will be, registered in the name of Goldman 
     Sachs Securities (Nominees) Limited;

b)   an interest in 16,101,639 shares arising from a beneficial interest held
     by Goldman Sachs International, a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of GS 
     Inc. These shares are, or will be registered at CREST in account CREPTEMP.


                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange