Appt of Group Secretary

ASCOT PLC
12 August 1999


Ascot Plc is pleased to announce the appointment of John Williams as Group
Secretary with effect from 2 August 1999.  John will be responsible for all
Group Secretarial matters.

John previously worked as a corporate lawyer for Slaughter and May.  He has
been involved in a wide range of corporate transactions, principally in the
fields of mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance.

After graduating from Bristol University, John joined Slaughter and May and
has worked in their London office throughout his career, except for a short
period in 1998/99 working in Slaughter and May's Hong Kong office and brief
secondments to J.P. Morgan, London in 1993 and Shell International in 1998.