Purchase of Own Securities

24 January 2003

                                FirstGroup plc                                 

              Buyback of 79,036 ordinary shares for cancellation               

FirstGroup plc announces that on 24 January 2003 it purchased for cancellation
79,036 ordinary shares of 5p each at an average price of 228.00p per share.

Since FirstGroup plc started to buyback its ordinary shares on 7 June 2002 it
has repurchased for cancellation a total of 5,887,789 ordinary shares. There
are now 414,943,158 ordinary shares in issue.