Artisanal Sp.co Regulatory News (ART)

22 Mar 2006 07:00

Artisan (UK) PLC22 March 2006 news release For immediate release: 22 March 2006 Artisan (UK) plc New Site Purchases Artisan (UK) plc, the residential house and commercial business park developer,is pleased to announce the following recent land acquisitions. A one acre site, adjacent to our existing business park at St Neots inCambridgeshire has been purchased by Artisan (UK) Developments. Although fullplanning permission for office units has been granted, we have applied for analteration of the planning permission to provide a continuation of the productwe have sold successfully on the existing site. This process is well advanced.Early interest from customers has been positive to the extent that heads ofterms have already been agreed for the forward sale of the first office unit.Potentially the site could accommodate eight units. In addition the acquisition of a 1.5 acre site in St Ives Cambridgeshire withoutline planning permission for industrial units has been completed. Again theapplication towards full planning permission is well advanced as is potentialoccupier interest in the site. There are few if any competing products locallyfor those that are to be developed on this site. Rippon Homes has also exchanged contracts on the acquisition of a 5.7 acre siteat Lincoln for residential development. The site already has the benefit ofoutline planning permission and we expect to be granted detailed planningpermission in the short term, prior to completion of the purchase. This sitewill act as a key site for the Lincolnshire area and we are already assessingother smaller sites that will be effective satellites to the acquired site. Chris Musselle, Chief Executive of Artisan commented: " Part of our corporate strategy is to refresh and expand our land bank in orderto take advantage of positive local conditions across both our house buildingand commercial development businesses. To this end we recently raised fundsthrough a placing to support the expected increase in our debt fundingfacility." Artisan (UK) plc: 01480 436666Chris Musselle Chief Executive email@artisan-plc.co.uk Seymour Pierce 020 7107 8000Sarah Wharry Nominated advisers Bankside Consultants 020 7367 8888 / 07703 167065Simon Rothschild Financial PR advisers This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange