Purchase of Own Securities

British Portfolio Trust PLC
27 March 2002


British Portfolio Trust plc announces that on 27th March 2002 it re-purchased,
for cancellation, 17,000 Ordinary 1p Shares (representing 0.04% of the issued
Ordinary capital), at the price of 143.286p per Ordinary Share.

Settlement and cancellation of the re-purchased 17,000 Ordinary Shares is due on
3rd April 2002 when the issued share capital of the Trust will fall to
43,436,105 Ordinary 1p Shares.

Enquiries:

P W I Ingram

Company Secretary

Tel: [phone]

As at 27th March 2002



                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange