Purchase of Own Securities

17 December 2002

                                FirstGroup plc                                 

              Buyback of 176,500 ordinary shares for cancellation              

FirstGroup plc announces that on 17 December 2002 it purchased for cancellation
176,500 ordinary shares of 5p each at an average price of 221.5085p per share.

Since FirstGroup plc started to buyback its ordinary shares on 7 June 2002 it
has repurchased for cancellation a total of 3,793,612 ordinary shares. There
are now 417,037,335 ordinary shares in issue.