Issue of Debt

Ashtead Group PLC
29 March 2004

29 March 2004


                               ASHTEAD GROUP PLC


              LAUNCH OF HIGH YIELD BOND AND 9 MONTH TRADING UPDATE


High Yield Bond Offering

Ashtead Group plc announces that it will shortly commence a High Yield Bond
offering with the objective of raising £130 million of senior secured second
priority debt capital.  Citigroup and Banc of America Securities Limited are
acting as joint underwriters and managers of the offering, which is expected to
close before the end of April.  The issuer, Ashtead Holdings plc will be
applying for the Bonds to be listed in London.

The Group's existing senior lenders have agreed to extend the maturity of the
Group's committed senior secured debt facilities to September 2007 conditional
upon their receipt of a US$200 million (£110.4 million) paydown to be funded out
of the net proceeds of the Bond offering.  After this partial paydown these
facilities will total approximately £310 million.  The balance of the net
proceeds from the Bond offering will be retained by the Company as additional
working capital.

Rentokil Initial plc, the holder of the Company's £134 million 5.25% unsecured
convertible loan note, due March 2008 has agreed consequential amendments to the
terms of the loan note to facilitate the Bond offering.

On closing of the Bond offering the maturity of the Company's debt facilities,
all of which will be fully committed, will be approximately 31/2 years for the
senior facilities, approximately 4 years for the Rentokil convertible and ten
years for the Bonds.



Following the issue of the Bonds the Company will also be committed to reporting
its results on a quarterly basis.



Results for the nine months ended 31 January 2004



The Group's results for the nine months ended 31 January 2004 set out below are
being released to meet the needs of potential purchasers of the Bonds and will
be included in the Offering Memorandum which will be filed with the UK Listing
Authority on closing of the Bond offering.





                                                                      Turnover                    EBITDA
                                                                   9 months ended              9 months ended
                                                                   2004      2003             2004        2003
                                                                     £m        £m               £m          £m

Sunbelt - $m                                                      429.7     421.3            131.6       126.0
                                                                   ====      ====             ====        ====
Sunbelt - £m                                                      255.0     270.0             78.1        80.8
A-Plant                                                           118.4     137.1             33.2        41.1
Technology                                                          8.9       9.5              4.7         4.8
Corporate costs                                                       -         -            (4.0)       (3.6)
                                                                  _____     _____            _____       _____
Total revenue/EBITDA                                              382.3     416.6            112.0       123.1
                                                                   ====      ====
Depreciation                                                                                (79.7)      (83.2)
Operating profit before goodwill amortisation and exceptional
items                                                                                         32.3        39.9
Interest payable (less exceptional interest)                                                (27.8)      (31.1)
                                                                                             _____       _____
PBT before goodwill & exceptionals                                                             4.5         8.8
Exceptional items                                                                           (18.5)      (18.5)
Goodwill amortisation                                                                        (6.8)       (6.7)
                                                                                             _____       _____
Loss before tax                                                                             (20.8)      (16.4)
                                                                                              ====        ====

Total dollar turnover in Sunbelt increased by 5.6% in the quarter ended 31
January 2004 and by 2.0% for the nine months.  Average fleet utilisation for the
nine month period improved to 65.1% from 64.5% in the previous year.  Reflecting
the operational leveraging inherent in the business, the growth in Sunbelt's
turnover produced an improvement in its EBITDA margins from 29.9% in 2003 to
30.6% in 2004.  Consequently dollar EBITDA grew by 10.6% in the quarter ended 31
January 2004 and by 4.4% in the nine months.

A-Plant's results for the nine months ended 31 January 2004 continue to reflect
the effect of its business refocusing strategy which has seen the closure or
sale of 59 profit centres since 1 May 2002, including 15 in Ireland sold on 15
January 2004.  In the nine months ended 31 January 2004 A-Plant has seen a 13.6%
reduction in turnover to £118.4 million.  Average fleet utilisation for the nine
month period was 58.9% compared to 61.1% in the previous year.  More
encouragingly utilisation has now risen to a current level of 65%.  Cost
reductions as part of the refocusing programme have limited the reduction in
EBITDA margin to 2% (down to 28.0% from 30.0%).

When measured in sterling, the continued weakness of the dollar resulted in a
5.6% decline in Sunbelt's total turnover for the nine months ended 31 January
2004.  Total Group turnover in sterling decreased by 8.2% for the nine months
ended 31 January 2004.

For the Group as a whole, EBITDA for the nine months ended 31 January 2004
declined 4.3% at constant exchange rates (but 9.1% at actual rates due to the
impact of the weak dollar).  For the 12 months ended 31 January 2004 Group
EBITDA was £138.9 million which compares with £142.9 million for the year ended
30 April 2003 at constant exchange rates (£150.1 million at actual rates).

After depreciation and interest costs, which were also reduced by the weak
dollar, the profit before tax, goodwill amortisation and exceptional items for
the nine months ended 31 January 2004 was £4.5 million compared with £7.9
million in the previous year at constant exchange rates (£8.8 million at actual
rates).

Cash management

Free cash flow(1) for the nine months ended 31 January 2004 was £36.2 million
(£22.7 million in 2003).  For the 12 months ended 31 January 2004 free cash flow
was £52.4 million.  After non-core disposal proceeds of £13.0 million and
exceptional costs mostly related to the default and refinancing costs of £11.3
million, the net cash generated and applied to reduce bank debt was £37.9
million in the nine months ended 31 January 2004 (£11.0 million in 2003) and
£48.1 million for the twelve months ended on the same date.

As a result of this cash flow and the impact of the weak US dollar, total net
debt at 31 January 2004 was £535.2 million (£618.5 million at 31 January 2003
and £622.3 million at 30 April 2003).  Total net debt leverage at 31 January
2004 was 3.85 times (4.15 times at 30 April 2003).  At 29 February 2004, total
net debt was £523.1 million.

Capital expenditure for the nine months ended 31 January 2004 was £49.7 million
(2003 - £60.4 million) and is expected to total between £70 million and £75
million by year-end.  The Group's average fleet age at 31 January 2004 was 54
months (30 April 2003 - 49 months).  The Group expects to increase capital
expenditure in the year ending 30 April 2005 to an amount broadly equivalent to
the annual depreciation charge and thereby hold the fleet age broadly constant
over the course of the coming year.

Outlook

While A-Plant's profits for the current year will reflect the effects of its
refocusing programme and trading conditions remain difficult, its management is
now free to concentrate on improving the future performance of the business.  In
the US there are signs of continued growth in Sunbelt's end markets as evidenced
by the improvement in the non-residential construction market and in recent
results announcements from its competitors.  Although the weakness of the US
dollar will continue to impact Sunbelt's profits when reported in sterling, the
Board is encouraged by the increasing rate of improvement in Sunbelt's
underlying performance and by the better trading conditions in the United
States.

Contacts:

Cob Stenham               Chairman                             )   020 7299 5562
George Burnett            Chief Executive                      )    01372 362300
Ian Robson                Finance Director                     )    01372 362300

David Trenchard           Tulchan Communications                   020 7353 4200


(1) Free cash flow is defined as: net cash inflow from operations before
exceptional items less net capital expenditure, interest (other than exceptional
interest) and tax




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