Trading Statement

RWS Holdings PLC
01 October 2007


For immediate release                                             1 October 2007


                                RWS Holdings plc

                           Year End Trading Statement


RWS Holdings plc (RWS), Europe's leading provider of intellectual property
support services (patent translations and searches) and technical translations,
today provides an update on trading for the year ended 30 September 2007, as
well as an update on the London Agreement. It intends to announce its
preliminary results on 11 December 2007.


Trading update for the year ended 30 September 2007

Revenue and profit before tax are expected to surpass market expectations which
are considerably ahead of the prior year, and to achieve new record levels.
There have been strong performances across all of our business areas; patent
translation, technical translation and patent search, accompanied by further
margin improvements and favourable foreign exchange movements.

Patent translation, which represents 80% of Group revenue, achieved further
progress driven primarily by growth in the number of patent grants worldwide and
significant new client activity.

Technical translation, which accounts for 14% of revenue and focuses on high 
margin, high quality technical translation services, showed strong organic
growth. On 11 June 2007 we announced the acquisition of Japanese Language
Services Limited ('JLS') and can confirm that JLS is already making a useful
contribution to revenues and profits.

Patent search represents 6% of Group revenue and has achieved good growth and
further margin improvements, reflecting a return to growth in the core patent
search activities and a stellar performance, ahead of our expectations, from our
proprietary subscription database, PatBase.

RWS' balance sheet demonstrates enhanced strength, backed by net cash of £21
million and shareholders' funds of £26 million. With the significant progress
achieved in the year ended 30 September 2007 and our confidence in the Group's
continued progress in the current year, we expect to increase the final dividend
in line with the increase in profits.


London Agreement

RWS has consistently drawn shareholders' attention to the possible
implementation of the London Agreement. In our preliminary results announced on
12 December 2006 we stated that opposition to French ratification had weakened,
that the Board was monitoring developments in France and that plans were well in
hand to limit any material financial downside were the agreement to be
implemented. The new French government secured approval from the National
Assembly on 26 September. It is anticipated that the issue of ratification will
be debated in the Senate on 10 October and, if approved, the London Agreement
would probably come into effect in March 2008.

We are, therefore, confident that implementation will have no effect upon our
results for the first half of 2007/08. Our core patent translation activities
(into English primarily for the US Patent Office) are in excellent shape and
unaffected by the London Agreement; the potential loss of work comprises the
into European language translations performed by freelances and hence we do not
anticipate any material restructuring costs. Our best estimate of the likely
reduction in profit in the second half of 2007/08 is of the order of £1 million,
before any redeployment of the Group's substantial cash balances into focussed
acquisitions.


Strategy

The Board's strategy is to grow both organically and by selective acquisitions
in the high level technical translation and intellectual property support
services spaces. As part of our planning to limit the financial effects of the
potential implementation of the London Agreement, we have already built a firm
platform for medium to long term growth with the extension of our services to
Japan and have received encouraging levels of interest in our nascent Chinese
operation. In non patent translations we expect the JLS acquisition to be
followed by others during 2007/08.


Andrew Brode, Executive Chairman, commented:

'RWS has delivered another strong performance in 2006/07, driven by the high
level of demand for all of its market-leading services.

'The continued expansion of our intellectual property protection and technical
translation services makes us confident of further progress in the new financial
year which we expect to supplement with further acquisitions designed to offset
the impact of the London Agreement in future years.'


                                    - ends -


For further information, please contact:

RWS Holdings plc
Andrew Brode (Executive Chairman)                              Tel: [phone]

Smithfield
Katie Hunt/Miranda Good                                       Tel: [phone]


About RWS

RWS is Europe's leading provider of intellectual property support services
(patent translations and technical searches) to the medical, pharmaceutical,
chemical, aerospace, defence, automotive and telecoms industries. RWS is based
in the UK with offices in Europe, New York, Tokyo and Beijing, and is listed on
AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (RWS.L).

For further information please visit: www.rws.com


About the London Agreement

The London Agreement is an optional agreement between member states of the
European Patent Convention, which will allow European patents to be protected
within signatory states if they are fully translated into either English, German
or French, whilst only the claims of the patent will need to be translated into
the national language, thereby reducing the patent translation requirements of
signatory countries. Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Iceland,
Latvia, Liechtenstein, Monaco and Slovenia have ratified the London Agreement,
whilst Sweden and Denmark have approved it, with enforcement remaining
contingent upon French ratification.


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