Requisition of EGM

Guinness Peat Group PLC
7 December 2000

                               
         GUINNESS PEAT GROUP plc SERVES REQUISITION OF
      EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING ON COATS VIYELLA PLC

Blake Nixon, UK Executive Director of Guinness Peat Group  plc
('GPG')  has written to Sir Harry Djanogly, Chairman of  Coats
Viyella  PLC ('Coats Viyella'), serving a requisition  calling
for the directors of Coats Viyella to convene an Extraordinary
General  Meeting  to  consider  resolutions  to  appoint  four
additional non-executive directors to the Board.

GPG  currently  holds  12% of Coats Viyella's  ordinary  share
capital.

The resolutions call for:

a)the appointment of M. Noel Goutard and M. Eduardo Malone
  to the Board of Directors, as the nominees of the Finance and
  Trading Group;

b)the  appointment of Mr Albert Alhadeff to the  Board  of
  Directors, as the nominee of the Chapman Consortium; and

c)the  appointment  of  Mr Blake Nixon  to  the  Board  of
  Directors, as the nominee of GPG.
  
Commenting on the proposed resolutions, Blake Nixon said: 'GPG
is  increasingly  concerned about Coats  Viyella's  continuing
under-performance and strategic direction and our concerns are
shared  by  the  Finance  and Trading Group  and  the  Chapman
Consortium.  Together, we represent approximately 35% of Coats
Viyella's issued share capital.

'We  are  convinced that a restructured board is necessary  to
preserve  and rebuild Coats Viyella's value.  We believe  that
the   proposed  non-executive  directors  have  the   relevant
industrial and financial experience to help Coats Viyella make
the  best  of prevailing market conditions and to protect  the
interests of shareholders as a whole.'


Also attached:

Appendix A:  Wording  of  proposed  resolutions  for  Coats
             Viyella Extraordinary General Meeting

Appendix  B: Text of letter from Blake Nixon to  Sir  Harry
Djanogly


Enquiries:

Guinness Peat Group plc                          020 7236 0336
Blake Nixon, UK Executive Director

Square Mile Communications                       020 7601 1000
Kevin Smith
                               

APPENDIX A

TEXT OF RESOLUTIONS PROPOSED BY GUINNESS PEAT GROUP plc

      REQUISITION OF AN EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING OF
               COATS VIYELLA PLC ('the Company')

Pursuant to Section 368 of the Companies Act 1985 ('the  Act')
and   Articles  56  and  57  of  the  Company's  Articles   of
Association,  we, the undersigned, holding in total  not  less
than  one  tenth of the paid-up capital carrying the right  to
vote at general meetings of the Company as at the date of this
letter,  hereby  requisition  the  directors  to  convene   an
Extraordinary  General Meeting of the Company, the  object  of
which  shall be to consider and, if thought fit, to  pass  the
following resolutions as Ordinary Resolutions:

1.   That  Mr Blake Nixon be and he is hereby appointed  as  a
     director of the Company.

2.   That  Mr Noel Goutard be and he is hereby appointed as  a
     director of the Company.

3.   That Mr Eduardo Malone be and he is hereby appointed as a
     director of the Company.

4.   That Mr Albert Alhadeff be and he is hereby appointed  as
     a director of the Company.

We  also  attach  a  statement with  respect  to  the  matters
referred  to  in  Resolutions 1  to  4  above  and  which,  in
accordance with Section 376 of the Act, we require the Company
to  circulate to those members receiving Notice  of  the  said
Extraordinary General Meeting.



APPENDIX B

TEXT  OF LETTER TO SIR HARRY DJANOGLY, CHAIRMAN, COATS VIYELLA
PLC


We are increasingly concerned about Coats Viyella's continuing
under-performance and its strategic direction.   Our  concerns
are  shared  by two other groups of shareholders, the  Finance
and  Trading Group and the Chapman Consortium, who,  like  us,
have concluded that it would be in the best interests of Coats
Viyella for its board to be strengthened by the appointment of
additional non-executive directors.

On  29  November 2000 we wrote jointly to your Board outlining
our  proposals  and  requesting that  the  matter  be  put  to
shareholders.

GPG  has  heard  nothing further and therefore  we  are  today
serving a requisition calling for the directors to convene  an
Extraordinary  General  Meeting  to  consider  resolutions  to
appoint  M. Noel Goutard,  M.  Eduardo  Malone,  Mr.  Albert
Alhadeff and myself as additional directors of the Company.

M. Noel Goutard and M. Eduardo Malone are the nominees of the
Finance  and  Trading  Group and Mr. Albert  Alhadeff  is  the
nominee of the Chapman Consortium.  I am GPG's nominee.

The  Finance  and Trading Group comprises Finance and  Trading
Limited  and  RIT  Capital Partners plc, together  with  their
respective connected interests.

The   Chapman   Consortium  comprises  Chapman   International
Investments  Limited, Colmar Investment Holdings Limited,  The
Millennium Trust, The Panda Trust and The Apple Pie Trust.

Background

Coats Viyella's shareholders have suffered dramatically during
the last five years:

. Coats Viyella's market value has fallen by 75 per  cent.
  from £1.2bn at the end of 1995 to approximately £305m today;

. over the same period, the FTSE All Share Index has risen
  by 68 per cent.

Despite   several   strategic  reviews  and  having   incurred
reorganisation costs in excess of £200m since 1996, there  has
been  no  noticeable  improvement  in  the  Group's  operating
performance.   Excluding the Precision  Engineering  business,
during that period Group revenue has fallen by 21.1 per  cent.
and pre-exceptional operating profit has fallen 32.2 per cent.

More  recently, we were dismayed at the way the Company  chose
to  announce the sale of the non-thread businesses. We believe
that the statement referring to possible closure costs of £150
million destroyed any chance of negotiating a reasonable price
with  a third party and therefore undermined shareholder value
in  a  quite  unnecessary way.  Notwithstanding the continuity
provided through this challenging period by the heads  of  the
Coats  and  Viyella  divisions as well  as  the  non-executive
directors,  the  Board has failed to prevent  the  erosion  of
shareholder value.

The  recent announcement by Coats Viyella of the sale  of  the
contract clothing business, subsequent to the joint letter  to
your Board, has only heightened our concerns.

The Proposals

In  light of the above, we believe that the addition  of  non-
executive  directors  with relevant industrial  and  financial
experience  will  be  of real and effective  benefit,  helping
Coats  Viyella  to  make  the best of  the  prevailing  market
conditions and to protect the interests of shareholders  as  a
whole.

If  the  Resolutions  are approved, we  believe  it  would  be
appropriate  for  the  enlarged Board to conduct  a  strategic
review including:

. a  comprehensive evaluation of the business portfolio to
  establish  which, if any, businesses should be disposed  of,
  with  reference in particular to the proposed  sale  of  the
  branded clothing and home furnishing businesses

. the timing and implementation of any disposals so as  to
  achieve best value for shareholders

. likely   future  trends  in  Coats  Viyella's  retained
  businesses

. the appropriate level of geographical and sectoral spread

. the location of facilities and staff

At  the same time, we believe there should also be a review of
the  Group's  operating management including group  management
structure, balance sheet management, productivity and turnover
growth.

Given   shareholders  will,  in  effect,  be  voting  on   the
participation  of  the  proposed Directors  in  following  the
strategic direction of the Company, I presume you would  agree
that  it  would be most inappropriate to make any acquisitions
or disposals before the outcome of the EGM is known.

The Nominees

The  proposed  directors have been selected on  the  basis  of
their  relevant  experience and in the expectation  that  they
will be able to make a real and immediate contribution to  the
Group.

Mr.  Alhadeff was a founder member of the Stonehage Group,  an
international trust company which was taken over by ABSA Bank.
He  is  CEO of Adante SA, a financial advisory company, and  a
non-executive director of Emess plc.

M.  Goutard  was until this year Chairman and Chief  Executive
Officer  of  Valeo S.A., an automobile component  manufacturer
with a market capitalisation of approximately £2.7 billion and
prior to that was Chief Executive Officer of Chargeurs S.A., a
manufacturer  and  distributor of wool  and  textiles  with  a
market capitalisation of approximately £245 million.

M. Malone is currently Chairman of Chargeurs S.A. and Chairman
of  the  Management  Board of Pathe  with  a  combined  market
capitalisation of approximately £1.5 billion.

I  am  GPG's  UK  Executive  Director.   GPG  makes  selective
investments,  predominantly  in  public  companies,  for   the
purpose of enhancing and realising additional value.

Mr Alhadeff and I have considerable expertise in the corporate
finance  aspects of public companies while M. Goutard  and  M.
Malone  are  highly  experienced in  improving  the  operating
performance of such companies.

Both  M. Goutard and M. Malone are satisfied that their  other
interests  do  not in any way conflict with the  interests  of
Coats Viyella and its shareholders.

Summary

GPG is convinced a restructured board is necessary to preserve
and rebuild Coats Viyella's value.

We  have  no hesitation in commending our resolutions  to  all
shareholders.  The Finance and Trading Group and  the  Chapman
Consortium  have already pledged their support.   Collectively
their  and our holdings represent approximately 35%  of  Coats
Viyella's issued share capital.