Retirement Homes Offer

Grainger Trust PLC
01 December 2006





1 December 2006

                 Grainger Trust plc ('Grainger'/the 'Company')

                GRAINGER TRUST ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT HOMES OFFER

Grainger Trust plc ('Grainger'), the UK's largest, quoted residential property
company, announces that Grainger Retirement Housing Limited ('GRHL'), a wholly
owned subsidiary of Grainger, is making today an offer to shareholders of The
Capital Appreciation Trust (Isle of Man) plc ('CAT'), an offshore open ended
investment company, for the acquisition of CAT.

The offer is conditional, amongst other things, upon completion of a share
purchase agreement between GRHL and Close Investments Limited relating to two
other companies, Close Property Management (Isle of Man) Limited and Close
Property Management (Guernsey) Limited, which currently undertake property
management and related activities for CAT and hold the title to many of the
properties beneficially owned by CAT.

The offer price is 145.86 pence per share payable in cash, valuing CAT at
£71.6m. The first closing date of the offer is 12 noon on 28 December 2006.

CAT contains a portfolio of some 912 retirement properties, which are subject to
lifetime leases or are currently vacant. The majority of the properties, which
consist largely of one bedroom flats in complexes of retirement units, are
located within McCarthy & Stone developments. The greatest concentrations of
properties are in the South East (53.6%), the South West (31.2%) and East Anglia
(10%). The remaining 5% of the portfolio is spread across England and Wales.

The properties have an investment value of approximately £73.65m and certain net
liabilities have been retained within CAT, amounting to some £1.5m. The existing
Isle of Man resident directors of CAT will continue to work for the business.

The transaction is expected to be earnings enhancing as revaluation gains on the
portfolio will be recognised under IFRS in the Income Statement.

JPMorgan Cazenove is acting as sole financial adviser and corporate broker to
Grainger.

Commenting on the offer, Rupert Dickinson, Chief Executive of Grainger said:

'This will be our first major acquisition in the increasingly important
retirement home sector and fits well with our existing home reversion business.
We see good opportunities to use our existing skills and franchise in both
residential property and equity release to grow this portfolio. We also want to
investigate ways of introducing more flexible tenure into the retirement home
sector through a range of options, from rental, lifetime lease, through to
shared equity. We think it is now becoming as important to offer elderly
homeowners flexibility in stepping off the housing ladder as it has become for
first time buyers to get that first step up.'

Peter Couch, Director of Equity Release added:

'This is a great opportunity to significantly increase our portfolio of
residential properties occupied by elderly tenants. As with our existing home
reversion business, the key business drivers will be house price inflation and
life expectancy of our tenants.'

Enquiries:
Grainger Trust plc                                                                      
Andrew Cunningham                             0191 261 1819
Peter Couch                                   0191 261 1819

JPMorgan Cazenove                             
Roger Clarke                                  020 7588 2828

Financial Dynamics
Stephanie Highett                             
Dido Laurimore                                020 7831 3113

JPMorgan Cazenove, which is regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial
Services Authority, is acting for Grainger in connection with the offer and for
no one else and will not be responsible to anyone other than Grainger for
providing the protections afforded to clients of JPMorgan Cazenove, or for
providing advice in relation to the offer or any other matter.



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