Purchase of Own Securities

20 December 2002

                                FirstGroup plc                                 

              Buyback of 257,441 ordinary shares for cancellation              

FirstGroup plc announces that on 20 December 2002 it purchased for cancellation
257,441 ordinary shares of 5p each at an average price of 225.7879p per share.

Since FirstGroup plc started to buyback its ordinary shares on 7 June 2002 it
has repurchased for cancellation a total of 5,665,753 ordinary shares. There
are now 415,165,194 ordinary shares in issue.