Purchase of Own Securities

16 December 2002

                                FirstGroup plc                                 

              Buyback of 73,500 ordinary shares for cancellation               

FirstGroup plc announces that on 16 December 2002 it purchased for cancellation
73,500 ordinary shares of 5p each at an average price of 225.00p per share.

Since FirstGroup plc started to buyback its ordinary shares on 7 June 2002 it
has repurchased for cancellation a total of 3,617,112 ordinary shares. There
are now 417,213,835 ordinary shares in issue.