Berkeley Group Regulatory News (BKG)

23 Oct 2006 16:58

Berkeley Group Holdings (The) PLC23 October 2006 JOINT VENTURE BETWEEN PRUDENTIAL AND THE BERKELEY GROUP The Prudential Assurance Company Limited ("Prudential") and The Berkeley GroupHoldings plc ("Berkeley") are delighted to announce that their agreement toestablish a joint venture is now unconditional. On 4th July 2006, Prudential and Berkeley announced the establishment of a newjoint venture to develop major residential and mixed-use development schemesacross the UK, trading as St Edward Homes Limited. The agreement was conditionalon St Edward Homes finalising terms to acquire land at GreenPark in Reading anda building in Kensington, both from Prudential, and for Berkeley to provide landand properties for the joint venture. St Edward Homes has now agreed the purchase of both of the Prudential's sitesand the purchase of a site at Stanmore from Berkeley. These three majorresidential schemes in the South East create a land bank for St Edward Homes ofover 2,500 homes. St Edward Homes will now work towards obtaining the necessaryplanning permission and it is hoped to commence development activity on at leastone site in 2007. PRUPIM has facilitated the agreement on behalf of its client Prudential. PRUPIMwill continue to work in conjunction with Berkeley to pursue land and propertiesfor major redevelopment and the delivery of sustainable residential, commercialand mixed-use schemes. Ends Notes to Editors PRUPIM PRUPIM is one of the largest property investors in the UK with over £17.2billion invested in a broad spread of properties across all UK sectors andoverseas (as at 31/12/05). PRUPIM is part of M&G, the investment arm ofPrudential plc in the UK and Europe. For further information, please contact: A W Pidgley, Berkeley (01932 868555) Natalie Brooke, PRUPIM (0207 548 6976) R C Perrins, Berkeley (01932 868555) Martin Moore, PRUPIM (0207 548 6571) This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange