Statement re Investment

Informa Group PLC
8 March 2002


                                                                 Friday 8 March


               INFORMA GROUP INVESTS IN XINHUA FINANCIAL NETWORK


Informa Group has made an investment in Xinhua Financial Network (XFN). XFN is a
financial news service based in Hong Kong with additional offices in Beijing and
Shanghai. The majority shareholder in XFN is the main Chinese Government News
Agency - Xinhua News Agency.


XFN provides financial information about China to foreign companies based
outside China and to Domestic and International companies operating in China.


XFN offers a number of services, the main ones of which are Financial indices,
credit ratings, company news and equity information. Informa already provides a
service on XFN called China Watch - a Bond information service which is already
proving successful. It is intended that following the investment, Informa will
provide further products and also become the official Conference arm of XFN
using the Xihnua brand where appropriate.


Informa has been operating in China for some years now. This provides an
excellent opportunity for the Group to take advantage of China's increased
information needs following accession to the WTO alongside a respected local
partner.


For further information

Peter Rigby, David Gilbertson, Jim Wilkinson
Informa Group                                                  0207 017 4302

Fiona Piper
The Maitland Consultancy                                       0207 379 5151




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