The property, which includes offices, warehousing and manufacturing facilities, will remain under the control of Polestar in the transaction.

Polestar Group finance director Peter Johnston said the site in Leeds, which is currently being expanded to accommodate new presses, was leased.

However, the expansion was being conducted on a mixture of both Polestar's land and its landlord's.

WP Carey had made a proposal to acquire both the existing site and new development site, which Johnston said would allow Polestar to fund new equipment should it be required. "It made sense to get someone else to fund it," he said.

The Leeds-based plant is currently being developed into one of the largest web-offset printing facilities in the UK, under a 25-year triple-net lease.

Polestar revealed plans to develop its Leeds site into a superplant with the largest 64pp press capacity in Europe last summer (PrintWeek, 10 July 2003), as part of 16m three-year investment plan for Petty.

By the end of September this year, the plan is for Petty to house six 64pp presses. WP Carey's International chief investment officer, Edward V LaPuma said he was pleased to have worked with Polestar to secure their financing. "This will enable them (Polestar) to maintain their leadership position in the commercial printing industry," he said.

Story by Andy Scott