Interim Results

GUS PLC
29 November 2001

PART 1

                                                              29 November 2001

                                   GUS plc

                             INTERIM RESULTS FOR

                      SIX MONTHS ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2001



Highlights




  * Profit before amortisation of goodwill, exceptional items and taxation
    up 11%: £206m (2000: £187m)

  * Earnings per share before amortisation of goodwill and exceptional items
    up 10%: 15.5p (2000: 14.1p)

  * Dividend up 5% to 6.5p (2000: 6.2p)

  * Experian: sales and profits grew in first half, with North America
    profits unchanged overall despite disruption in September

  * Argos Retail Group: sales up 9%; profits up 13%; excellent performance
    from Argos with 13% like-for-like sales growth

  * Reality: further efficiency and service level improvements; continues to
    win third party contracts

  * Burberry: sales up by more than 30%; profits up by more than 50%; more
    new stores, wholesale accounts and strong growth in Japan



Sir Victor Blank, Chairman of GUS, commented:

'The Group's performance in the first half reflects the strengths of our major
businesses. Our continued growth is a great credit to the GUS team at all
levels, but I would particularly like to pay tribute to our colleagues in the
United States, who have recently been working with tremendous courage in very
difficult circumstances.'

John Peace, Chief Executive of GUS, commented:

'GUS has delivered strong results across the Group in this first half, with
encouraging progress in trading at Burberry and Experian North America since
the 11 September terrorist attacks.'


Enquiries
GUS      John Peace          Chief Executive              020 7495 0070

         David Tyler         Finance Director

         Fay Dodds           Investor Relations
Finsbury Rupert Younger                                   020 7251 3801

         Jenna Littler





There will be a presentation today to analysts and institutions at 9.30am at
the Ground Floor Conference Centre, UBS Warburg, 1 Finsbury Avenue, EC2M 2PP.

The announcement is available on the GUS web site: www.gusplc.com. The slide
pack and presentation to analysts and institutions will also be available
there later in the day.

GUS will issue its Third Quarter Trading Update on 14 January 2002. Its
preliminary results for the year to March 2002 will be announced on 29 May
2002.

GROUP RESULTS

In the six months to 30 September 2001, sales grew by 8% to £2,857m. Group
profit before amortisation of goodwill, exceptional items and taxation was £
206.2m, compared to a restated £186.5m in the same period last year. This
year's result was before an exceptional charge of £26.0m (2000: £26.1m). This
charge covered restructuring costs in Argos Retail Group and Reality (£16.3m),
in line with expectations, and a loss on sale of businesses and investments (£
9.7m).

The Group's effective tax rate (based on profit before amortisation of
goodwill and loss on sale of businesses) was 24.2%. Earnings per share before
amortisation of goodwill and exceptional items were 15.5p (2000: 14.1p).

The Board has announced an interim dividend of 6.5p (2000: 6.2p).


6 months to 30 September                Sales £m     Profit before taxation £m
                                        2001    2000         2001         2000
Experian                                 534     487        110.3        105.7
Argos Retail Group                     1,965   1,796         64.5         57.1
Reality                                  226     219          2.2          1.6
Burberry                                 236     185         42.1         26.6
Other *                                   84     148         26.0         30.1
Inter-divisional turnover              (188)   (184)            -            -
Total                                  2,857   2,651        245.1        221.1
Net interest                                               (38.9)       (34.6)
Profit before amortisation of goodwill, exceptional         206.2        186.5
items and taxation
Exceptional items                                          (26.0)       (26.1)
Amortisation of goodwill                                   (48.6)       (42.4)
Profit before taxation *                                    131.6        118.0

* As previously disclosed, South African Retailing profits have been re-phased
between the first and second halves, benefiting first half profits in 2000 by
£5.8m, with a corresponding reduction in the second half.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE'S REVIEW

The first six months of the current financial year have seen further good
progress at GUS. Sales rose by 8%, with profit before amortisation,
exceptional items and taxation up 11%. All our major businesses increased
their operating profit.

We continue to reposition our businesses for growth by investment and
corporate developments.

Investment

Our 11% growth in profit before tax was after significant revenue investment
in our existing businesses, as well as new initiatives such as the Argos store
card, Argos Additions and e-commerce related ventures in gusco.com.

As previously announced, capital expenditure in the current financial year
will be up to £100m higher than in 2001 (£268m). Major projects include the
supply chain programme at Argos, a new UK data centre and buildings for
Experian and new stores for Burberry. Cash will also be invested in the
build-up of the debtor book for the Argos store card, with the loan book
estimated to be approximately £100m at March 2002.

Management teams at all levels have been further strengthened across the
Group, especially at Experian North America and Burberry. Tom O'Neill,
previously at LVMH, joined Burberry as President on 1 November 2001. Reporting
to Rose Marie Bravo, he will initially have management responsibility for its
Asian operations.

Corporate developments

As part of its drive to take a greater share of the value chain, Burberry has
secured an agreement to bring much of its Asian licence and distribution
arrangements outside Japan fully in-house with effect from 1 January 2002.

It remains the Group's intention to arrange a partial IPO for Burberry by June
2002, subject to market conditions.

We have continued to dispose of non-core businesses, such as our Swiss home
shopping activities and our small UK stationery and printing interests. We
have also made further small in-fill acquisitions in Experian to strengthen
its product offering. These include companies in e-mail distribution, German
account processing and French cheque processing.

Sales performance since 30 September

Given the uncertainty about the impact of the terrorist activity and anthrax
problems on the performance of Experian North America and Burberry in
particular, we are providing an update to investors on trading since 30
September in these two businesses in these unusual circumstances.

For the month of October, the sales of Experian North America in dollar terms
were 5% above those of last year (4% excluding acquisitions). We anticipate a
further month of progress in November.

For Burberry, Wholesale deliveries for Autumn/Winter 2001 were virtually
unaffected. With the Spring/Summer 2002 order book now well advanced, orders
to date indicate that single digit sales growth overall should be achievable,
on top of the strong growth in recent seasons. Although Burberry's retail
sales since 30 September are below last year's levels, the trend has shown an
improvement since the period from 11 to 30 September.



EXPERIAN
6 months to 30 September         2001      2000              underlying change*
Sales £m                          534       487                              4%
Operating profit £m             110.3     105.7                              1%
Operating margin                20.7%     21.7%

*at constant exchange rates excluding acquisitions and disposals

For Experian as a whole, sales and operating profit increased by 10% and 4%
respectively. At constant exchange rates and excluding acquisitions and
disposals, sales grew by 4% and operating profit by 1%. Exchange rate
movements benefited sales by £19m and profit by £4m.



Experian North America
6 months to 30 September             2001     2000          underlying change *
Sales £m                              342      317                           1%

Operating profit £m                  76.9     75.2                         (1%)
Of which:
- Direct business £m                 62.7     72.2                        (16%)
- Associates (mainly FARES) £m       14.2      3.0                            -

Operating margin
- including associates              22.5%    23.7%
- excluding associates              18.3%    22.8%

* at constant exchange rates, excluding acquisitions and disposals

In the first six months of the year, Experian North America grew sales by 2%
in dollars (1% excluding acquisitions), while profits at £76.9m were broadly
unchanged. As discussed more fully below, operating profit from the direct
businesses was adversely affected by the events of 11 September, by redundancy
costs and by increasing investment in new growth initiatives.

For the five months to the end of August, sales at Experian North America were
up 4% on an underlying basis. This was in line with the trends of the second
half of last year, helping to demonstrate the resilience of the business in a
slowing US economy. Sales in Information Solutions (roughly 60% of sales)
increased by 4%, as market share was regained in consumer credit reporting and
prescreen and lower interest rates contributed to a stronger mortgage
refinancing market. Growth in Marketing Solutions in the first five months of
the year was also 4% on an underlying basis. Some corporate clients reduced
expenditure on direct marketing campaigns in the light of the weakness of the
US economy, but this was offset by revenues from new products such as the
automotive database and e-commerce products.

In the month of September, sales in dollars and excluding acquisitions were
15% lower than the previous year, suffering from short-term disruption
following the tragic events of 11 September. The sales shortfall in September
adversely affected profit from Experian North America's direct businesses,
which was down $11m compared to the same month last year.

During the first half, as previously announced, 340 redundancies were made at
a cost of £3.3m (2000: nil). This represented over 5% of the workforce and
will generate annualised savings of about £13m. FARES, the real estate
information joint venture, had an excellent first half, as a significant
reduction in US interest rates stimulated the mortgage refinancing market in
particular.

During the first half, Experian North America made further progress in its
business objectives:

  * the cost base was reduced across the business;
  * the management team was further strengthened;
  * contracts were won in both core and new products;
  * new products contributed to sales growth. Sales of Vehicle History
    reports from the automotive database were three times what they were in
    the first six months last year. Credit reports sold direct to consumers
    increased significantly, with consumers now able to obtain online access
    to their credit reports and scores for one annual fee;
  * investment in new products continued despite the economic slowdown. For
    example, four major American-based financial services companies joined
    Toyota in subscribing to the National Fraud Database. This unique database
    cuts across industry boundaries, creating a single, accurate database for
    information about consumer and commercial fraud; and
  * progress was made in strategic growth markets. For example, during the
    first six months, Truvue, Experian's customer data integration solution,
    won a number of multi-million dollar contracts, against strong competition
    in various industries including telecoms, financial services, automotive
    and retail. Truvue is based on Experian's personal linking technology
    (PINing) which has been used internally for a number of years. It has
    proved itself in a number of client tests to be the most accurate way of
    allowing them to link disparate customer records. Customer data
    integration is essential to successful Customer Relationship Management
    initiatives.

Sales performance since 30 September

For the month of October, Experian North America's sales recovered to 5% above
those of last year in dollars (4% excluding acquisitions). Information
Solutions had a very good month (up 11%), with particular strength in the
consumer credit bureau and pre-screening. Marketing Solutions sales were down
6% on an underlying basis compared to last year as US businesses reduced
direct marketing activity following the events of 11 September and the anthrax
scares. We anticipate a further month of progress in November for Experian
North America as a whole, once the month-end invoicing of sales to its
customers is complete.

Experian International
6 months to 30 September             2001        2000        underlying change*
Sales £m
   UK                                 114         100                       11%

           Rest of World               78          70                       11%

           Total                      192         170                       11%

Operating profit £m                  33.4        30.5                        8%
Operating margin                    17.4%       17.9%

* at constant exchange rates, excluding acquisitions and disposals

As previously announced, it is no longer appropriate to report UK and Rest of
World profits separately, given the extent of shared costs.

Experian International continued to trade strongly. Underlying sales growth in
both the UK and Rest of World was 11% in the first half.

In the UK, particularly strong sales growth was achieved in credit scoring and
modelling, risk management software, fraud and automotive services. Solid
growth has continued in consumer information and business information sales.
In the Rest of World, sales were driven by a strong performance in
outsourcing, with particularly high growth in cheque and payment processing
volumes.

At constant exchange rates and excluding acquisitions and disposals, operating
profit increased by 8%. However, the first half last year benefited from a
significant short-term Italian call centre contract and a one-off gain of £
0.8m following the sale of the French facilities management business in July
2000. If the latter was excluded, operating profit growth would have been 11%
and the operating margin would have been unchanged.

Experian International has continued to win further contracts in the first
half, including:

  * La Poste (French call centres);
  * Banque de France (cheque processing);
  * ABTA (using e-series to confirm the identity of individuals who purchase
    tickets or holidays remotely by credit card, either by phone or on the
    Internet);
  * Compania Financiera Argentina (AIG Group) (risk management); and
  * Bank of Scotland (e-identity money laundering product).

Together, the annual sales associated with these contracts are some £4m.

It also continues to launch new products and make small acquisitions to
complement and expand its integrated product offering. New projects include
the Motor Insurance Database (used by the police to check immediately whether
drivers are insured) and the continued expansion of the e-series range
including e-identitycheck (used by retailers to combat 'card not present'
credit card fraud) and e-series business (company credit status and risk
reports).

Acquisitions, which contributed sales of £6m in the first half, comprised
Cards Direkt (German loyalty card processing), CNTP (French cheque
processing), Intact (UK web-based list enhancement) and, after the period end,
Interface (Irish business information). The total cost of these acquisitions
was £9.5m.

Explaining Experian

We are today releasing new information on Experian to improve understanding of
its businesses. For the financial year to March 2002 and thereafter, sales
will be split five ways:

  * Information - credit    : providing data for credit purposes
    
  * Information - marketing : providing data for marketing purposes

  * Solutions   - credit    : helping clients with decision making for credit
                               purposes
  * Solutions   - marketing : helping clients with decision making for marketing
                              purposes
  * Outsourcing             : supporting clients in process tasks
    




The new segmental information for the first half of this year and comparatives
for last year are given in the Appendix. Additional information on Experian's
business and the markets it serves is available on the GUS plc web site,
www.gusplc.com.



ARGOS RETAIL GROUP
6 months to 30 September                           Sales       Operating profit
                                                 2001     2000     2001    2000
Argos £m                                        1,165      944     44.2    35.7
Home Shopping UK & Ireland £m                     683      702     10.8     8.3
Financial Services £m                               3        -    (0.9)     2.7
Home Shopping Continental Europe £m               114      150     10.4    10.4
Total £m                                        1,965    1,796     64.5    57.1
Operating margin                                                   3.3%    3.2%


Argos Retail Group (ARG) increased sales by 9% in the first half and operating
profit by 13%. This was led by a very strong performance from Argos, with UK
Home Shopping stabilising profits in a declining agency market. Substantial
investment in the Argos store card and Argos Additions was made during the
first half.

Argos
6 months to 30 September                          2001      2000         change
Sales £m *                                       1,165       944            23%
Operating profit £m *                             44.2      35.7            24%
Operating margin                                  3.8%      3.8%

* includes Argos Additions and jungle.com

In the first half of the year, Argos benefited from strong consumer demand in
its major markets. Including Argos Additions and jungle.com, which was
acquired in September 2000, sales and profits both increased by over 20%.

Excluding Additions and jungle, sales at Argos grew by 17% in total, of which
new space contributed 4% and 13% was like-for-like growth. This was achieved
by the continued focus on the key elements of the Argos strategy.

More choice

  * increased range, with over 8,650 products in the Spring/Summer 2001
    catalogue, up by over 1,000 compared to last year; and
  * expansion in new ranges such as white goods, furniture and office
    equipment.

More choice has resulted in strong growth in markets where Argos has a lower
than average share, such as furniture and consumer electronics. It has also
resulted in increased spend per customer as,firstly, category mix moved to
these higher priced products and, secondly, as more higher specification goods
were introduced within ranges.

Low prices

  * over 1,000 lines re-included in the Autumn/Winter 2001 catalogue were at
    lower prices than in the Autumn/Winter 2000 catalogue;
  * since the launch of the Autumn/Winter 2001 catalogue in July, a further
    800 prices have been lowered to maintain Argos' price competitiveness.

Independent consumer surveys show that Argos' reputation for value has
strengthened.

Increased convenience

  * 26 stores were refurbished during the first half, bringing the total to
    150 out of 477 stores at 30 September 2001. These refurbishments have been
    designed to improve the overall customer in-store experience;
  * seven new stores were opened in the first half, improving accessibility
    to a wider number of customers. A further ten new stores are planned for
    the second half; and
  * Argos continued to grow e-commerce and Argos Direct, the delivery to
    home operation. The latter accounted for 16% of sales in the first half,
    up from 14% a year ago.

Gross margins in the first half remained firm, with the gains from better
buying and more direct importing being largely re-invested in lower prices.
Increased investment has been made in new systems, the supply chain and
additional warehouses for Argos Direct.

As recently announced, Argos' growth plans include:

  * increasing the planned rate of new store openings to about 35 per annum;
  * refurbishing all remaining small stores by March 2004;
  * increasing the range in all stores by 1,600 lines in Autumn 2002;
  * investing £120m over four years in its supply chain, yielding benefits
    of about £50m per annum to invest in improving its value proposition and
    to support margins; and
  * growing the capacity and improving the customer service in Argos Direct.

Argos Additions

Following full national launch in January this year, sales of Argos Additions
were £63m in the first half, in line with expectations. Start-up losses for
the half year were greater than last year (2000: loss of £2.6m), reflecting
the planned costs of national rollout. For example, 6.5m catalogues were
published for Spring/Summer 2001 compared to only 675,000 a year ago.

Looking forward, sales growth will be achieved by raising customer awareness,
increasing the number of pages (with an additional 130 pages in the Spring/
Summer 2002 catalogue), adding more brands such as Adams and Tammy and
expanding the range of home products.

jungle.com

In the half year, jungle.com, which was acquired in September 2000, generated
sales of £27m and a small operating loss. Against the background of a
difficult market for computer products, it reduced costs in personnel, IT and
overheads. A new web site and enterprise-wide system will be completed during
the second half of the year to reduce costs further and improve customer
service.

Home Shopping UK and Ireland
6 months to 30 September                         2001       2000         change
Sales £m                                          683        702           (3%)
Operating profit £m*                             10.8        8.3            30%
Operating margin                                 1.6%       1.2%

* excludes exceptional costs

UK Home Shopping continues to reduce its agency sales, while improving
profitability by reducing costs.

Sales in the first six months of the year were down by 3%. The active agency
customer base fell, as planned, by 12% to 3.0m, as the business reduced the
number of non-profitable customers. However, average spend per customer was 9%
higher. Fashion sales were down 7% in the first half, with hard goods largely
unchanged.

Gross margins were broadly maintained, but profits increased in the first half
by £2.5m as further cost savings of £13m were achieved in the areas of
marketing and logistics and customer service, via Reality. This is in line
with our previously announced plans to reduce annual fixed costs by a further
£25m in the current year and £80m in total over three years.

The customer proposition in agency home shopping is being improved and low
risk opportunities in the growing direct home shopping market are being
explored. A new catalogue, abound, was launched in late August 2001. This
offers contemporary, often branded, fashion at high street prices, with
flexible credit options. Learning from the lessons of earlier direct trials,
abound has started as expected and is on target to deliver sales in its first
year of £15-20m.

The business' two non-core printing operations have been sold. Annual sales
were £7m in 2001.



Financial Services
6 months to 30 September                          2001      2000         change
Sales £m *                                           3         -              -
Operating profit £m                              (0.9)       2.7              -

* Sales represent interest income, fees and commissions relating to the Argos
store card

ARG Financial Services comprises the insurance, personal loan and banking
businesses of the Group, as well as the recent credit card initiatives.
Profits were reduced by start-up costs of £9.4m (2000: £3.5m), relating
primarily to the Argos store card. About £5m of this spend is with Experian
and Reality, which support the store card operations.

The Argos store card was launched nationally in January 2001. During the first
half of the year, 235,000 accounts were added, making a total of 350,000 at
the end of September. As well as generating incremental merchandise sales for
Argos and starting to populate a customer database, the store card is expected
to generate a profit stream in its own right over time. Customer acquisition
costs are low compared to many others.

Revenue investment spend on the Argos store card and personal loans is likely
to peak this year at about £20m, lower than the £25m previously indicated.



Home Shopping Continental Europe
6 months to 30 September        2001    2000                underlying change *
Sales £m                         114     150                                 4%
Operating profit £m             10.4    10.4                               (3%)
Operating margin                9.1%    6.9%

* at constant exchange rates, excluding disposals

Universal Versand, the Austrian business, was sold to Otto Versand on 31 March
2001. Vedia, the Swiss operation, was sold to its management team with effect
from 1 April 2001. Combined, these businesses had sales in the last financial
year of £94m.

At constant exchange rates, sales from the two remaining businesses (Wehkamp
in Holland and Halens in Sweden) increased by 4%, with profits slightly down
in difficult markets.

Both Wehkamp and Halens are now working more closely with ARG for some of
their sourcing and stockholding needs. 13% of Wehkamp's sales in the first
half were ordered via the Internet.

e-commerce

In ARG, e-commerce sales (defined as via the Internet or digital TV) were £
65m, compared to £20m in the previous year.  Excluding jungle.com's e-commerce
sales, this is more than three times the level of a year ago.

REALITY
6 months to 30 September                            2001      2000       change
Sales to external customers £m                        43        40           8%
Sales to ARG £m                                      183       179           2%
Total sales £m                                       226       219           3%
Operating profit £m *                                2.2       1.6          38%

* excludes exceptional costs

Reality continues to make good progress in developing sales from external
clients and improving cost efficiencies for both its internal and external
customers.

Sales to ARG

Sales to the Argos Retail Group in the first half increased by 2%, aided by
strong growth in Argos Additions and Argos Direct. Continued cost savings
largely offset cost inflation. Service levels in both logistics and call
centres have improved further during the first half.

There has been considerable focus in the period on the achievement of future
cost savings and plans for enhancing the service offer in the logistics
business.

Sales to external customers

Sales to external customers grew by 8% in the first half. Reality has
withdrawn from some peripheral areas such as vehicle servicing and has seen
lower volumes from two large logistics customers. In addition, there was a
marked slowdown in market demand for web design services, where Reality has
reduced costs significantly. Growth in both the core logistics and call
centres activities was over 10% in the first half.

Capacity constraints are now being approached in call centres, given the
growth of both internal and external sales in this area. Reality's call centre
in Worcester is being relocated early in 2002 to modern, new facilities,
giving some additional capacity.

Reality continues to win new contracts, including Marks and Spencer, for whom
it is offering next day delivery for flowers and gifts and a two-day service
for homewares and clothing. The total value of new contracts in the first
half, including the extension of existing contracts, was £38m.



BURBERRY
6 months to 30 September                  2001       2000            underlying

                                                                       change *
Sales £m                                   236        185                   31%
Operating profit £m                       42.1       26.6                     -
Operating margin                         17.8%      14.4%

* excluding the acquisition of Burberry Spain, discontinued Wholesale
activities and at constant exchange rates

Burberry continued to deliver a strong performance in the first half of the
year, with underlying growth in sales of 31% and a substantial advance in
profits to £42m.

Wholesale

Sales to external Wholesale customers were strong, rising 46% on an underlying
basis. This performance reflected further development of, and demand for, the
more contemporary, repositioned product range. Encouraging progress is being
made in the United States with large key accounts.

Burberry Spain's sales for the Autumn/Winter 2001 season were ahead by 3%
overall. Actions have now been initiated to co-ordinate more fully product
development at Burberry Spain with the rest of Burberry and to take advantage
of its sourcing skills.

Retail

Sales in Burberry's directly-operated Retail stores were up 10% at constant
exchange rates in the first half. Growth was led by accessories, up by 41% at
constant exchange rates, and now representing 28% of reported Retail sales.
New store developments included a relocated store in Dusseldorf and a new
store in Westchester, New York. With the opening of a store in Beverly Hills
in October, the total number of directly-operated stores is now 60.

In addition, sites were secured for the first Spanish store, a flagship in
Barcelona, and one in SoHo, New York. Burberry's presence in London will be
strengthened next year by the conversion of the Knightsbridge Scotch House
store into a Burberry flagship store.

Japan

Significant growth in royalty income was achieved, as a result of a higher
royalty rate and double digit volume gains in Japan.

Licensing

Recently, a new global product licence for timepieces has been concluded and
becomes effective during 2002.

Operating profit for the first half of £42.1m showed an increase of £15.5m
over last year. This was driven by increased volumes, together with improved
gross margins and higher Japanese royalty income. Burberry continues to invest
in marketing, facilities, new stores and systems. Operating margin increased
by over three percentage points to 17.8%.

Recent developments

Burberry has recently secured an agreement to bring much of its Asian licence
and distribution arrangement (outside Japan) fully in-house with effect from 1
January 2002. Under the terms of this agreement, the relevant business and
certain trading assets will be acquired by Burberry at that date. This gives
Burberry greater control of its brand in this important region, as well as
securing a higher share of the value chain.

The management team has been further strengthened by the appointment of Tom
O'Neill to the newly created post of President of Burberry. Reporting to Rose
Marie Bravo, he will initially take responsibility for operations in Asia
Pacific. Tom O'Neill joins from LVMH, where he was President and Chief
Executive Officer for the Jewellery Division, having held senior positions in
LVMH Fashion and Tiffany.

Sales performance since 30 September

The strength of domestic demand for Burberry products in Japan and Spain,
which together account for about two-thirds of Burberry's worldwide sales of
the brand at retail sales value, is protecting Burberry from the decline in
travel and tourism which is currently impacting the luxury sector as a whole.

Wholesale operations account for over half of Burberry's reported sales.
Wholesale deliveries for Autumn/Winter 2001 were virtually unaffected by the
events of 11 September. With the Spring/Summer 2002 order book now well
advanced, orders to date indicate that single digit sales growth overall
should be achievable on top of the strong growth in recent seasons.

Sales in Burberry's directly-operated retail stores account for about
one-third of reported annual sales. Although Burberry's retail sales since 30
September are below last year's levels, the trend has shown an improvement
since the period from 11 to 30 September.

Burberry believes it has widespread growth opportunities and is maintaining
its planned investment in all aspects of its business, despite recent events.



SOUTH AFRICAN RETAILING
6 months to 30 September                     2001      2000          underlying

                                                                       change *
Sales £m                                       65        63                  3%
Operating profit £m                          15.8      15.8                 14%
Underlying operating margin                 24.3%     22.3%

* at constant exchange rates

As previously disclosed, South African Retailing profits have been re-phased
between the first and second halves, benefiting first half profits in 2000 by
£5.8m, with a corresponding reduction in the second half. Sales have not been
re-phased as immaterial to the Group.

South African Retailing continues to operate in a very difficult trading
environment, with increasing levels of unemployment and aggressive competition
from other retailers on price and credit offers.

Sales in the first half were up by 3% in rand, against weak comparatives last
year. Lower bad debts as a result of more stringent credit policies helped
underlying operating profit to grow by 14%. Further weakening of the rand
against sterling reduced sales by £8m and operating profit by £1.9m in the
first half and this trend has continued into the second half.

The business continues to promote aggressively using an Experian developed
scoring system to give pre-approved credit offers to top credit rated
customers. Best Electric, the small store electrical business, is improving
sales through a recently launched in-store furniture catalogue.



FINANCE
6 months to 30 September                         2001       2000         change
Operating profit £m*                              9.4        9.3             1%

* before exceptional costs of £13.1m in 2000, and net of funding costs

General Guarantee Finance continued satisfactorily to wind down its loan book
during the period, showing a reduction of £237m from the balance of £681m at
31 March 2001.

At 30 September 2001, GGF's outstanding advances, net of provisions, were £
444m, of which £358m were funded by securitised debt. We anticipate collecting
in the great majority of GGF's outstanding advances by March 2003.



PROPERTY
6 months to 30 September                         2001       2000         change
Operating profit £m                              12.8       14.6          (12%)

During the first half, the joint venture with British Land disposed of 78 of
its 253 properties for £96m. During October, a further three properties have
been sold for £49m. The disposal proceeds have been used to repay borrowings,
thus reducing the interest charge.

The joint venture's portfolio of 175 properties was valued at £893m at 30
September 2001.



gusco.com
6 months to 30 September                        2001        2000         change
Operating loss £m                              (5.3)       (5.5)              -

gusco.com funds the Group's e-commerce ventures, mainly MyPoints Europe,
breathe.com (now sold) and a US consumer credit management businesses. The
investment spend in the first half was £5.3m.



EXCEPTIONAL ITEMS

During the first half, the Group incurred restructuring costs, predominantly
in cash, of £16.3m in Argos Retail Group and Reality. As previously announced,
we expect the full year charge to be approximately £35m.

The disposal of businesses and e-commerce investments generated a loss of £
9.7m, of which £4.0m related to the goodwill write back on these businesses.
6 months to 30 September                                         2001     2000
                                                                   £m       £m
Restructuring costs in Argos Retail Group/Reality              (16.3)    (8.9)
Profit/loss on sale of e-commerce investments                   (2.1)      4.6
Loss on disposal of businesses                                  (7.6)   (13.3)
Closure costs in GGF                                                -   (13.1)
VAT refunds in UK Home Shopping                                     -      4.6
Total charge                                                   (26.0)   (26.1)




CASHFLOW AND INTEREST COSTS

The Group's free cashflow in the first half was £284m compared to £121m in the
same period last year. After the payment of dividends, the repayment of
securitised loans and acquisitions and disposals, there was a net cash outflow
of £97m in the first half, compared to an outflow of £123m in the same period
last year. Net debt was £1,227m at 30 September 2001.

Interest costs were £4.3m higher in the first half because of the impact of
the dollar's strength on the Group's dollar borrowing costs and because Group
borrowings were largely at fixed interest rates. The repayment in mid November
of the $800m bank loan, which was at a fixed rate of 6.4%, will reduce
interest costs in the second half.

ACCOUNTING POLICIES

This year we have adopted the new accounting standards on accounting policies
(FRS 18) and deferred tax (FRS 19). While the adoption of FRS 18 has had no
material impact on reported profits, the adoption of FRS 19 has given rise to
a positive prior year adjustment to the balance sheet of £16m, relating to the
recognition of certain deferred tax assets. The 2002 Annual Report will
contain additional disclosure on accounting for pensions as required by the
new accounting standard FRS 17.



APPENDIX

Additional information on Experian



Reported sales for Experian International
6 months to 30 September                    2001     2000            Underlying

                                              £m       £m             increase*
Information
- Credit                                      41       38                    7%
- Marketing                                   22       21                    6%
Total                                         63       59                    7%
Solutions
- Credit                                      62       53                   16%
- Marketing                                   13       12                    6%
Total                                         75       65                   14%
Outsourcing                                   54       42                   13%
Discontinued activities                        -        4
Reported sales                               192      170                   11%



Reported sales for Experian North America
6 months to 30 September                    2001     2000            Underlying

                                              $m       $m             increase*
Information
- Credit                                     243      236                    3%
- Marketing                                   83       73                    7%
Total                                        326      309                    4%
Solutions
- Credit                                      40       41                  (4%)
- Marketing                                   73       75                  (3%)
Total                                        113      116                  (3%)
Outsourcing                                   51       55                  (7%)
Discontinued activities                        -        1
Reported sales                               490      481                    1%


    * Excluding acquisitions and disposals and at constant exchange rates

APPENDIX

Additional information on Burberry

Reported sales by distribution channel
6 months to 30 September                    2001     2000            Underlying

                                              £m       £m             increase*
Retail                                        65       56                   10%
Wholesale                                    147      109                   46%
Royalties                                     24       20                   29%
Reported sales                               236      185                   31%



Retail sales by product category
6 months to 30 September                    2001     2000            Underlying

                                              £m       £m             increase*
Womenswear                                    26       23                   11%
Menswear                                      19       20                 (12%)
Accessories                                   18       12                   41%
Other                                          2        1                   28%
Retail sales                                  65       56                   10%



Reported sales by market (by destination)
6 months to 30 September                    2001     2000            Underlying

                                              £m       £m             increase*
Europe                                       142      113                   38%
US                                            46       37                   19%
Asia                                          47       34                   36%
Rest of World                                  1        1                     -
Reported sales                               236      185                   31%


    * At constant exchange rates, excluding Burberry Spain and discontinued
    Wholesale activities

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