Purchase of Own Securities

17 February 2003

                                FirstGroup plc                                 

              Buyback of 200,000 ordinary shares for cancellation              

FirstGroup plc announces that on 17 February 2003 it purchased for cancellation
200,000 ordinary shares of 5p each at an average price of 204.00p per share.

Since FirstGroup plc started to buyback its ordinary shares on 7 June 2002 it
has repurchased for cancellation a total of 7,434,626 ordinary shares. There
are now 413,867,543 ordinary shares in issue.