ashtead group plc
annual report and accounts 
for the year ended 30 april 2005
ashtead group plc annual report and accounts for the year ended 30 april 2005
wwwashteadgroupcom
ashtead group plc
king’s court
4151 kingston road
leatherhead
surrey kt22 7ap
tel 44 0 1372 362300 a market leader
in equipment
rental serving 
the us and uk
construction
industrial and
homeowner
markets
01 financial highlights
02 at a glance
04 chairman’s report
05 annual awards
06 chief executive’s review
10 sunbelt
12 aplant
14 ashtead technology
16 directors
18 senior management and advisers
19 directors’ report
21 corporate governance report
26 directors’ remuneration report
34 operating and financial review
49 independent auditors’ report
50 consolidated profit and loss account
51 consolidated statement of total recognised gains and losses
51 summary of movements in shareholders’ funds
52 consolidated balance sheet
53 consolidated cash flow statement
54 company balance sheet
55 notes to the consolidated financial statements
76 ten year history
77 our locations
80 key financial dates
ashtead group plc annual report and accounts for the year ended 30 april 2005 ashtead group plc annual report and accounts for the year ended 30 april 2005 
“the board 
anticipates 
reporting further 
progress in the
coming year” turnover
✝
£million
pretax proﬁt
✝
£million
cash tax earnings
per share
✝

Summary:
 ashtead group plc annual report and accounts for the year ended 30 april 2005 
06
overview
strong performances by all three of our
divisions drove a signiﬁcant recovery in the
group’s results in the us sunbelt’s proﬁts
rose 48 on revenues up 15 as it
continued to take market share in improving
trading conditions in the uk aplant
delivered a near trebling of proﬁts and a
substantially improved return on capital
technology is now also beneﬁting strongly
from increased investment in offshore oil
exploration globally with its proﬁts up 26 
to £34m
for the year to 30 april 2005 group proﬁt
before tax goodwill amortisation and in
2004 exceptional items increased to £253m
from £76m in 2004 £62m at constant
exchange rates after goodwill amortisation
and exceptional items pretax proﬁts were
£164m compared with last year’s loss 
of £331m cash tax earnings per share
1
were 76p 2004 – 24p after goodwill
amortisation and in 2004 exceptional items
and the accounting tax charge basic earnings
per share were 07p in 2005 compared to the
loss of 108p in 2004
the fourth quarter proﬁt before tax goodwill
amortisation and in 2004 exceptional items
was £44m 2004 – £31m after goodwill
amortisation and exceptional items the 
pretax proﬁt for the quarter was £21m
compared with the loss of £100m in 2004 george burnett
chief executive
chief
executive’s
review
review of trading
divisional
turnover operating proﬁt
2005 2004 2005 2004
sunbelt in m 6611 5728 1082 733
sunbelt in £m 3550 3331 581 424
aplant 1563 1559 117 40
ashtead technology 124 113 34 27
group central costs – – 59 49
5237 5003 673 442
interest 420 366
proﬁt before tax 253 76
in 2004 before exceptional items  before goodwill amortisation and in 2004 exceptional items
despite an 8 year on year decline in the 
us dollar group turnover increased by 47 
to £5237m and divisional operating proﬁt 
by 523 to £673m the underlying growth
measured at constant exchange rates was
greater with turnover up 104 and
divisional operating proﬁt up 640 
the group’s proﬁt margin also improved
signiﬁcantly the group’s return on operating
capital employed excluding goodwill
increased to 126 2004 – 74 
1
cash tax earnings per share comprises earnings before goodwill amortisation exceptional items and deferred 
tax divided by the weighted average number of shares in issue cash tax earnings per share is considered to be a
relevant measure of earnings per share for the company as the deferred tax liability is not expected to crystallise 
in the foreseeable future ashtead group plc annual report and accounts for the year ended 30 april 2005 
07
sunbelt
sunbelt performed strongly in the year 
with both rental rates and utilisation rising
substantially turnover grew 154 to
6611m 2004 – 5728m reﬂecting growth
of approximately 8 in average rental rates
and an increase in average utilisation from
651 to 690 there was also a modest
return to growth in its average ﬂeet size
arising almost entirely from fourth quarter
capital expenditure turnover growth was
broadly based with all regions and all major
product areas trading ahead of last year 
in the fourth quarter turnover increased
115 to 1595m 2004 – 1431m 
a good performance bearing in mind that
quarterly comparatives are now with a 
period last year which had already started 
to beneﬁt from the recovery in nonresidential
construction rental rates grew 7 in the
quarter the new proﬁt centres opened in 
the ﬁrst half continued to progress and
further new locations in miami and phoenix
were opened in the fourth quarter
sunbelt’s turnover improvement reﬂected
market share gains and growth in private
nonresidential construction activity which
rose 53 in the year to april 2005 according
to ﬁgures published by the us department 
of commerce as well as the continued shift
from ownership to rental sunbelt’s divisional
operating proﬁt was up 163 in the fourth
quarter from 202m to 235m sales of
used rental equipment were concentrated 
in the fourth quarter of last year giving rise 
to an unusually high incidence of gains 
on disposal excluding this and the lease
capitalisation effect explained below the
underlying rate of growth in divisional
operating proﬁt was 370 for the year as 
a whole sunbelt’s divisional operating proﬁt
grew 476 to 1082m representing 
a margin of 164 2004 – 128
investments to enhance the network of stores
and the mix of our business continue the
acquisition of ﬁve stores in the miami area for
consideration of 17m at an ebitda multiple
of 25 times from hss rentx announced 
in may together with our plan to open
approximately 10 new general tool and
equipment stores across the us on a
greenﬁeld basis in the coming ﬁnancial year
will increase ﬂeet investment in higher return
areas additional inﬁll acquisition opportunities
are also under consideration to increase
further our share in attractive markets
we anticipate strong trading conditions 
in sunbelt’s key us nonresidential market 
in coming years according to the dodge
analytics division of mcgrawhill
construction a leading industry research
source us nonresidential construction
spending is projected to grow by 66 
95 and 73 in 2005 2006 and 
2007 respectively
aplant
aplant has seen signiﬁcant beneﬁts this year
from the programme to refocus its business
completed in january 2004 although total
turnover for the year rose only marginally 
to £1563m from £1559m in 2004 when
20034 noncore disposals are excluded same
store turnover grew by 52 this growth
was achieved despite a ﬂeet size which was
approximately 41 smaller than in the
equivalent period last year increases in
utilisation from 599 to 649 and growth
in rental rates of approximately 2 increased
aplant’s efﬁciency the growth in rental rates
in the fourth quarter was approximately 7
turnover
million
2003
547 0
20 04
5728
2005
66 11
operating proﬁt
million
2003
515
20 04
733
2005
1082
before goodwill amortisation and in 2003 and 2004
exceptional items
up
15  4
up
47 6 ashtead group plc annual report and accounts for the year ended 30 april 2005 
08
as a result of these improvements aplant’s
fourth quarter divisional operating proﬁt was
£32m more than double the £15m earned
in 2004 and its full year proﬁt virtually trebled
to £117m 2004 – £40m representing a
margin of 75 2004 – 26 the initiative
announced earlier this year to increase further
returns through continuing investment in tool
hire equipment is on track with eight
additional locations already carrying the tool
hire range over the course of the next 12
months the tool hire range will be introduced
to a further 18 plant locations
aplant’s major account business continues 
to beneﬁt from the breadth of its product
offering and its geographic coverage as a
result its top 100 customers provided 35 
of aplant’s revenue in the year new ﬁveyear
contracts were agreed in the year with
balfour beatty utilities limited mcnicholas plc
and skanska uk plc with the latter being a
twoyear extension to an existing threeyear
agreement most recently we have been
awarded a new ﬁveyear sole supply contract
by birse group plc for all their plant and tool
requirements together these new contracts
are estimated to secure revenues of more
than £50m over the next ﬁve years
ashtead technology
for the year as a whole turnover grew 97
to £124m 2004 – £113m and divisional
operating proﬁt rose 259 to £34m 2004
– £27m the ﬁrst uk environmental rental
store was opened in hitchin at the beginning
of the year and the us environmental rentals
expansion continued with the opening of a
new store in atlanta last october both stores
developed well in their ﬁrst year ashtead
technology also substantially improved its
performance in the fourth quarter with
revenues up 458 from £24m to £35m 
in the quarter the fourth quarter divisional
operating proﬁt increased from £05m 
to £13m continuing the early signs of 
recovery in its offshore markets seen in 
the third quarter
capital expenditure and net debt
capital expenditure in the year was £1578m
this included £323m resulting from our
decision to reclassify certain leases mainly
relating to our delivery vehicle ﬂeet previously
accounted for as operating leases as capital
leases treating these leases as capital leases
increased reported capital expenditure and
ﬁnance lease debt by £323m it also resulted
in the reclassiﬁcation of lease payments of
£78m from ebitda to depreciation £67m
and interest £14m thus reducing pretax
proﬁts by £03m 
excluding this lease effect capital expenditure
rose from £723m to £1255m of which
£1200m was on the rental ﬂeet capital
expenditure was increased signiﬁcantly in the
year to enable sunbelt to take advantage of
the improving economic conditions in the us
£272m of the ﬂeet expenditure was for
growth with the remainder being spent to
replace existing equipment expenditure on 
aplant’s rental ﬂeet was also increased from
£298m to £354m as its performance
improved disposals amounted to £376m
2004 – £326m in the year generating a
chief
executive’s
review
turnover
£million
2003
1784
20 04
1559
2005
1563
operating proﬁt
£million
2003
79
20 04
40
2005
117
up
5 2 
up
29
times
before goodwill amortisation and in 2003 and 2004
exceptional items
on a same store basis
 ashtead group plc annual report and accounts for the year ended 30 april 2005 
09
proﬁt on disposal of £71m 2004 – £52m 
at a margin of 232 2004 – 190 the
markets we use for disposing of used rental
equipment continue to be healthy in the
coming year capital expenditure is expected
to increase to approximately £160m
cash tax payments were again minimal and
are expected to remain so
on a like for like basis underlying net debt 
at 30 april 2005 was £4674m a reduction
of £593m from last year’s £5267m
principally reﬂecting the pay down of debt
from cash ﬂow generated in the last twelve
months of £536m 2004 – £536m this
underlying net debt ﬁgure ignores the 
noncash impact of the lease capitalisation
discussed above which increased reported
year end net debt by £258m to £4932m
£820m 1567m was available under the
new ﬁrst priority senior debt facility based 
on the april 2005 borrowing base
ebitda for the year was £1697m 
2004 – £1470m before exceptional items
conversion of ebitda into net cash inﬂow
from operations was again high at 971
2004 – 952 before exceptional items 
as a result of both the growth in ebitda and
the net paydown of debt from cash ﬂow in
the year of £536m the ratio of net debt to
ebitda improved from 36 times a year ago
to 29 times at 30 april 2005
current trading and outlook
last year’s momentum has continued into 
the current year group turnover for the two
months ended 30 june 2005 was up 125
over the previous year sunbelt’s revenues in
dollars rose 17 in the same period
the capital reorganisation announced today
will provide when ﬁnalised a stable and
appropriate longterm platform for the
group’s future development it will complete
the renewal of all the group’s debt facilities
and extend the average debt maturity to
seven years the board also expects the
reorganisation will enable it to propose to
shareholders the resumption of dividends 
in respect of the year ending 30 april 2006 
in the us the key private nonresidential
construction market is strong and is forecast
to remain so in addition the shift from
ownership to rental continues the outlook
for sunbelt therefore remains encouraging
overall uk markets continue to be stable 
aplant’s focus remains on improving returns
and growing market share technology
should beneﬁt from increased investment in
oil exploration and production accordingly
the board anticipates reporting further
progress in the coming year
george burnett
chief executive
6 july 2005
turnover
£million
2003
120
20 04
113
2005
124
operating proﬁt
£million
2003
25 
20 04
27
2005
34
before goodwill amortisation and in 2003 and 2004
exceptional items
up
97 
up
25 9