AGM Statement

FirstGroup PLC
12 July 2007

                                                           Thursday 12 July 2007


                                 FIRSTGROUP PLC

                      AGM and Interim Management Statement



At today's Annual General Meeting in Aberdeen FirstGroup plc will report the
following:


The Group made excellent progress across all businesses and delivered a strong
set of results for the year to 31 March 2007.  We have made significant
investment in our businesses in both the UK and North America and are now seeing
the results of that investment.


Group revenue increased by 22.4% to £3,708.8m and adjusted operating profit was
£259.2m despite absorbing £37.1m of additional fuel cost. EBITDA increased by
13.4% to a record high of £398.9m.  Our commitment to increase dividends by 10%
for the foreseeable future, at least for a further three years, reflects the
Board's confidence in the Group's strong cash generation and prospects for
further growth.


Our proposed acquisition of Laidlaw International, Inc. will give us a unique
opportunity to become the leading operator in the large, fragmented North
American transport market and leverage value through scale. We are confident of
the opportunities this acquisition will bring to increase our service offering
to customers.  In Canada the Group has received approval from the Competition
Bureau and in the US from the Surface Transportation Board and the Committee on
Foreign Investment.  We now await antitrust approval from The Department of
Justice ('DoJ') with whom we continue to work cooperatively.


Our UK Rail business delivered another excellent performance with strong
passenger income and volume growth trends continuing. We are committed to the
long-term development of railways in the UK and are investing to deliver
improved services for passengers. We are shortlisted for the Intercity East
Coast Franchise which represents approximately £500m of additional revenue per
annum.


In UK Bus revenue growth continues to be strong and we have seen an encouraging
trend of increased passenger journeys for the UK Bus division as a whole. We
continue to deliver improvements in operating performance and efficiency within
the business.  Improving the quality of our services together with robust cost
control initiatives continues to underpin our margin enhancement strategy.


Our North America business delivered margin improvement during the past year,
despite continued fuel cost pressure, through rigorous contract bidding, tight
management of controllable costs and a strong focus on productivity.  In First
Student we were pleased to win new contracts to operate school bus services in
states including Connecticut, California, Louisiana, Maine and New Hampshire.
We remain confident that North America offers further exciting growth prospects
for the Group.


The board remains confident about the prospects for the Group. Trading in the
first three months of the year has started well and is in line with our
expectations.  Unaudited Group operating profit for the period was up 9.3% on
the comparative period in the previous financial year.


The interim results for the six months to 30 September 2007 will be announced on
Wednesday 7 November 2007.



FirstGroup contacts on 12 July 2007:


Rachael Borthwick, Group Corporate Communications Director         07771 945 432

Stuart Bugg, Group Corporate Communications Manager                07734 577 684


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