Acquisition

GUS PLC
05 May 2005






5 May 2005


                                    GUS plc
                  Acquisition of LowerMyBills.com by Experian
                            for $330m plus earn-out

GUS plc, the retail and business services group, today announces that Experian
has acquired 100% of the share capital of LowerMyBills.com, a leading online
generator of mortgage and other loan application leads in the United States. The
purchase price is $330m, plus a maximum performance-related earn-out of $50m
over the next two years. The acquisition is being funded from GUS' existing
banking facilities.

LowerMyBills.com is complementary to Experian's existing direct-to-consumer
activities and operates in large, fast-growing markets. The acquisition is
expected comfortably to exceed GUS' financial target of generating a
double-digit post-tax return on investment over time and is immediately
accretive to earnings.

Don Robert, Chief Executive Officer of Experian, commented:

'This acquisition represents a step-change in building Experian's
direct-to-consumer activities. With LowerMyBills.com, we will now assist
consumers in making the most cost-effective financial services decisions, while
also providing our lender clients with high-quality leads for new borrowers. The
strategic fit could not be better and we are delighted to welcome the talented
people of LowerMyBills.com to Experian.'

Enquiries

GUS
David Tyler     Finance Director                 020 7495 0070
Fay Dodds       Director of Investor Relations

Finsbury
Rupert Younger                                   020 7251 3801
Rollo Head

GUS announcements are available on its website, www.gusplc.com.

For further information on Experian Interactive, visit our websites:
www.LowerMyBills.com; www.ConsumerInfo.com; www.freecreditreport.com;
www.MetaReward.com; www.AffiliateFuel.com


Acquisition of LowerMyBills.com

Development of Experian Interactive
Experian is establishing leading positions in various markets in connecting
consumers with companies via the Internet. Its strategy is to offer a wide range
of products that assist consumers in managing the financial aspects of key life
events such as moving house or buying a car. Experian enables consumers to find
financial products and services that best suit their needs, while helping
companies to find new customers quickly and effectively.

As well as LowerMyBills.com, the newly-formed Experian Interactive operation
includes Consumer Direct (selling credit reports, scores and monitoring products
to consumers) and MetaReward and Affiliate Fuel (both of which generate online
leads for clients).

Description of business
LowerMyBills.com's vision is to provide consumers with a one-stop Internet
destination to obtain better deals on all their recurring monthly expenses.
Founded in 1999, it has a leading position in the US market, connecting
consumers seeking home mortgages with lenders best suited to provide them. The
mortgage sector today accounts for the great majority of its revenue, with the
balance being in other sectors such as automotive lending, credit cards and
insurance. LowerMyBills.com was privately owned and has 176 employees based in
Santa Monica, California.

It attracts customers for mortgage lenders and others by advertising on a wide
variety of websites, including the major portals such as MSN, AOL and Yahoo!.
Consumers who click through on mortgage ads, for example, are taken to the
LowerMyBills.com website, where they provide information relevant to the
mortgage approval process. This information is then matched against the lending
criteria of the clients of LowerMyBills.com and qualifying leads are passed on
to several different lenders. The lenders then contact the consumer who can
choose the most appropriate offer. LowerMyBills.com is paid for every lead
passed on to each lender.

On a pro-forma basis, sales in the year to 31 March 2005 were $120m with
operating profit of $26m. Further strong growth in sales and profit is expected
in the current financial year and beyond.

This acquisition is attractive because:

LowerMyBills.com operates in large, fast growing markets
More than 20m American households take out a new mortgage each year. In 2004,
home lenders spent $22bn on acquiring customers, an amount which has grown by
over one-third in the last five years.

Of the $22bn, about $1bn is currently spent online and this is growing by about
30% a year. Consumers' use of the Internet for information, products and
services associated with key life events has increased significantly, as they
switch from more traditional channels. For example, Experian estimates that the
percentage of mortgages originated online will treble between 2003 and 2008.

LowerMyBills.com has a strong market position
LowerMyBills.com is the most visited home loan service on the Internet. In a
highly fragmented market, it is one of only two players of scale with its online
leads generating more loans than any individual lending institution. It has
strong relationships with more than 400 lenders, including five of the top ten
mortgage providers in the United States.

LowerMyBills.com has attractive growth prospects on a stand-alone basis
Having grown its sales significantly over the last three years, LowerMyBills.com
has further exciting growth opportunities available to it:
    -      it can improve the performance of its operating model. For example,
           it can increase the distribution of its ads through more partnerships with top
           web publishers. It can also increase the number of lenders it works with to
           improve consumer choice in more states across the US
    -      it can strengthen its position in various parts of the mortgage
           market;
    -      it can broaden its portfolio by offering new financial services
           products such as health, life and automotive insurance;
    -      it can help consumers save money in other areas of recurring monthly
           expenses such as telephone and utilities bills; and
    -      it can apply its operating model in new countries.

LowerMyBills.com will benefit from becoming part of Experian
Over time, LowerMyBills.com will benefit from the skills, expertise and client
relationships within Experian:
    -      Consumer Direct, MetaReward and LowerMyBills.com all work in the same
           Internet space and can share expertise and traffic. Combined, these businesses
           have more than 29 million visitors to their websites each month; and
    -      there are also benefits of LowerMyBills.com working more closely with
           Experian's Credit business. The introduction of Experian's modelling and
           analytical capabilities will allow it to improve the quality of leads passed to
           lenders. Experian will also be able to sell LowerMyBills.com's services to its
           existing financial services clients, where it has strong relationships.





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