Purchase of Own Securities

18 December 2002

                                FirstGroup plc                                 

              Buyback of 470,000 ordinary shares for cancellation              

FirstGroup plc announces that on 18 December 2002 it purchased for cancellation
470,000 ordinary shares of 5p each at an average price of 222.00p per share.

Since FirstGroup plc started to buyback its ordinary shares on 7 June 2002 it
has repurchased for cancellation a total of 4,263,612 ordinary shares. There
are now 416,567,335 ordinary shares in issue.