Close Brothers is pleased to announce the £48m recommended cash offer by Daily Mail and General Holdings Limited (a subsidiary of Daily Mail and General Trust plc) for the owner of primelocation.com (Fastcrop plc), one of the UK's leading websites for quality estate agents wishing to list their properties on the internet.

Close Brothers acted as adviser to the Independent Directors of Fastcrop plc.

Primelocation was set up by 50 leading estate agents including Knight Frank and Savills and launched in January 2001. It aims to provide an effective medium to help those buying, selling, renting and letting property in the UK and attracts more than 850,000 visitors per month. For the year ended 31 December 2004, the company reported sales of £4.7m and an operating profit of £0.4m.

Commenting on the transaction, Ian Springett, Chief Executive of Fastcrop, said:

"The Offers provide Fastcrop shareholders with an opportunity to realise their investments at an attractive price and we are delighted that shareholders representing over 75% of the share capital of the company have already irrevocably committed to accept the Offers."

Peter Alcaraz, a director at Close Brothers, commented:

"Primelocation is the jewel in the crown of the well-established and increasingly popular online property sector. As part of DMGT it will have extra muscle in the market whilst retaining its core values and direction. This is certainly a company to watch in the future."

For more information regarding this transaction, please contact Peter Alcaraz, Tom Wrenn, Michael Hart or any member of the Close Brothers media team on

+44 (0) 20 7655 3100.