Trading Statement

Interregnum PLC
23 May 2002



Thursday, 23rd May 2002

For Immediate Release







                                Interregnum plc

                               Trading Statement



Given the continuing depressed levels of corporate IT spending (as exemplified
by the NASDAQ composite and TechMark indices), the Board of Interregnum plc 
('Interregnum' or 'the Company') acknowledges shareholders' concerns arising from
this difficult trading environment. Therefore, in accordance with its
commitment to achieve the highest levels of probity and transparency, the Board
provides an update on the performance of its portfolio holdings and associated
organisation changes following its interim results announcement issued in March
2002.



Portfolio and Funding



The longer term market opportunity for all of the portfolio companies is
excellent and, despite the difficult climate, Interregnum continues to invest
in, extend, and support its portfolio. However, the Company has found that other
investors are often unwilling or unable to make the necessary follow-on
investments - in the main due to their retreat from early stage technology
investment.  This is occurring even in cases where investee companies are
generating revenues and have achieved substantial progress in their businesses.
Computerwire, Adaptive, OBI and Vocalex, are examples of portfolio companies
affected by this and therefore regarded as 'at risk'.



In terms of a further update on the portfolio, companies such as Metapraxis,
Nanomagnetics, Respond, Sapphire, Blue Arc and Udate are performing well, are
meeting or exceeding their strategic objectives, and are not dependent on
short-term funding support.



Private equity market conditions continue to impede Interregnum's progress in
closing its own venture capital fund. Based on its capabilities and track
record, the Company and its advisors are confident that the fund will be raised,
but this will not be before the end of financial year 2001-2, which will mean
that no revenues from fund management fees will be recognised during the current
financial year.



In the interests of financial prudence, Interregnum has decided to fully expense
the costs of fund raising, which have been incurred since 2000, in the financial
year 2001-2, an amount of £330,000 which had been held on the balance sheet. The
short term difficulty of raising development capital for some of the companies
mentioned above has resulted in Interregnum making a provision of £3.9m for
potential write-downs from the existing investment portfolio.











Priorities and Organisation



Interregnum's four immediate priorities remain unchanged from those stated at
the interim results, and the Company has made the following organisation changes
in support of each:



1.      To protect and build value in the portfolio:

Graham Ransom, formerly head of Venture Marketing, has been specifically
assigned to perform aggressive work-outs on some of the 'at risk' elements of
the portfolio, and teams are focused more closely on providing critical
additional support to clients



2.      To increase fee income across all the lines of business:

Ian Taylor, MP and former Minister for Science and Technology, who heads
Interregnum's corporate venturing activity, is now concentrating on corporate
recovery projects, which will generate larger revenue earning opportunities for
Interregnum



3.      To reduce costs and overheads

As part of the work to align the costs of the business with the non-investment
fee income, administration and support headcount has been reduced by five,
although there have been no departures from the executive team



4.      To increase its investment firepower through raising additional funds
and seeking co-investment partners:

Recognising that Interregnum's founder needs to take a more prominent role in
Interregnum's own fund raising, Ken Olisa, Chairman and Chief Executive, has
handed over day-to-day operational management of the underlying advisory
business to Roger Jeynes.  Roger, who was formerly Interregnum's Managing
Director, Research & Consulting, now becomes Chief Operating Officer.

Ken Olisa will also transfer most of his direct client responsibilities to other
Interregnum directors, and these changes will enable Ken to spend significantly
more time working with Adrian Merryman, Chief Investment Officer, on raising the
VC fund.



The Board believes that Interregnum is very well positioned to benefit when IT
market sentiment improves, continuing to apply its in-depth IT industry
expertise and exploiting the vacuum in early-stage capital caused by other
investors' focus on later stage deals.



These changes increase Interregnum's focus on raising its next VC fund, but also
protect its portfolio and support the objective of restoring underlying
profitability during the first half of the financial year 2002-3. Thus while
Interregnum is confident that it will raise the fund, the company's prosperity
does not depend exclusively upon it.





                                    - Ends -



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