Status of the Proposal

Caledonia Investments PLC
17 October 2003

                           CALEDONIA INVESTMENTS PLC

                                 ('Caledonia')


The Board of Caledonia notes today's announcement by the two companies chaired
by Sir John Craven to withdraw their proposals which would have resulted in the
liquidation of Caledonia.  On 7 July 2003 the Board announced that, with the
benefit of advice from N.M. Rothschild & Son Limited and Cazenove & Co. Ltd., it
had unanimously concluded that the proposals were not in the best interests of
its shareholders.  It was also announced on 2 October 2003 that the shareholders
of The Cayzer Trust Company Ltd (a 37.7% shareholder in Caledonia) had voted to
reject the proposals by a majority of 72.9%.

The Board welcomes the withdrawal of these proposals.  This will enable
management to focus on their stated strategy to achieve strong outperformance
for the benefit of all Caledonia's shareholders.  Absolute and relative total
shareholder return ('TSR') figures, and Caledonia's ranking in the latest
Association of Investment Trust Companies ('AITC') statistics for the Global
Growth Sector, are shown below:

                                        TSR to 30 September 2003

                                                                                    Rank in
                                             FTSE                                    AITC
          Period            Caledonia      All Share       Outperformance        Global Growth

1 year (short term)            +54%          +17%               37%            2nd  (top decile)

5 years (medium term)          +59%           -1%               60%            2nd (top decile)

10 years (long term)          +161%          +86%               75%           3rd (second decile)



Tim Ingram, Chief Executive, commented:

'We are now able again to focus all our efforts on the investment portfolio and
the considerable opportunities that there currently are for supporting
attractive new business propositions.'

                                                                 17 October 2003


ENQUIRIES:

Caledonia Investments plc                          Tel: [phone]
Tim Ingram, Chief Executive

College Hill                                       Tel: [phone]
Alex Sandberg
Tony Friend



N M Rothschild & Sons Limited and Cazenove & Co. Limited are acting for
Caledonia in connection with the proposals referred to in this announcement and
no one else and will not be responsible to anyone other than Caledonia for
providing the protections offered to clients of N M Rothschild & Sons Limited
and Cazenove & Co. Limited nor for providing advice in relation to such
proposals.

The Association of Investment Trust Companies ('AITC') statistics quoted are
derived from the Monthly Information Service dated October 2003 from the AITC
prepared by Fundamental Data Limited on behalf of AITC Services Limited.


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