Purchase of Own Securities

23 December 2002

                                FirstGroup plc                                 

              Buyback of 143,000 ordinary shares for cancellation              

FirstGroup plc announces that on 23 December 2002 it purchased for cancellation
143,000 ordinary shares of 5p each at an average price of 224.9271p per share.

Since FirstGroup plc started to buyback its ordinary shares on 7 June 2002 it
has repurchased for cancellation a total of 5,808,753 ordinary shares. There
are now 415,022,194 ordinary shares in issue.