Acquisition

Kingfisher PLC
15 March 2001


Press Release
15 March 2001

      B&Q Acquires Five Homebase Stores
Kingfisher plc today announced that its Home Improvement subsidiary Castorama
Dubois Investissements SCI ('CDI') has purchased, through leading UK retailer B
&Q, five trading stores from Homebase. The value of the net assets acquired is
£11.9 million.

Four of the acquired stores in Glasgow, Dundee, Ipswich, and Greenwich will be
converted to B&Q Warehouses while the fifth store in Kidderminster will trade
temporarily under the B&Q banner until early January when a new purpose-built B
&Q Warehouse will open.

Kingfisher's Chief Executive, Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy, said: 'Over two thirds of B
&Q's sales growth comes from the Warehouse format. The acquisition of these
five Homebase stores - on top of the recent purchase of 28 non-trading
development sites from J. Sainsbury plc - will enable us to accelerate the roll
out of these highly successful stores, further strengthening our leadership
position in the UK.

In the year ending 3 February 2001, B&Q opened 12 new Warehouses, bringing the
total to 59, as well as acquiring 28 new sites.

                                 -ends-

                            Notes to Editors
*   With an 11.2% share, B&Q is the UK leader in the Repair, Maintenance and
    Improvement (RMI) market
*   Kingfisher plc is one of Europe's leading retailers, operating principally
    through its two international businesses in home improvement and
    electricals and its UK-focused general merchandise business. The Group
    employs more than 130,000 people in over 2,900 stores across 16 countries
    and has some of the best known retail brands in Europe, including B&Q,
    Castorama, Comet, Darty, BUT, Woolworths and Superdrug among others.

For further information:
Media Enquiries
Jonathan Miller                                        [phone]
Gail Lavielle (France)                                 [phone]
Lorian Coutts (B&Q)                                    [phone]

Broker & Instituational Enquiries
Andrew Mills                                           [phone]
Ian Harding                                            [phone]
                                                                    
Graham Fairbank (France)                               [phone]
                                                                    
Kingfisher plc                                         [phone]
                                                                   
Kingfisher Website                                     www.kingfisher.co.uk