Holding(s) in Company

Speedy Hire PLC
25 April 2002



Letter to Speedy Hire Plc

5p ORDINARY SHARES ('SHARES')

We write to advise you that we, Schroder Investment Management Limited, have an 
interest in 5,637,866 shares which are held in portfolios managed by us on a 
discretionary basis for clients under investment management agreements.

Included in this figure are:-

(i)   4,242,866 shares held in (a) unit trust(s) operated and managed by an 
      affiliated company, Schroder Unit Trusts Limited (SUTL), and registered or 
      to be registered in the name of Chase Nominees Limited and,

(ii)  1,395,000 shares neither registered nor to be registered in the name of 
      Schroder Nominees. The registration details are shown on the enclosed 
      schedule

A wholly-owned subsidiary, Schroder Investment Management North America Limited 
(SIMNA Ltd), is managing on a discretionary basis (a) portfolio(s) holding a 
further 130,000 shares. These shares are registered or to be registered in the 
name of Chase Nominees Limited.

An affiliated company, Schroder Investment Management North America Inc 
(SIMNA Inc), is managing (a) portfolio(s) on a similar basis holding a further 
93,800 shares, 63,800 shares are registered or to be registered in the name of 
Chase Nominees Limited, while 30,000 shares are registered or to be registered 
in the name of State Street.

We believe that we, our subsidiary and affiliated company are therefore 
interested in an overall aggregate of 5,861,666 shares, representing some 
13.780% of the total number of shares in issue, namely 42,538,835.
 
This notification is made to you:-

(a)  in respect of our interest as investment,

(b)  on behalf of SIMNA Inc and SUTL in relation to the interests they are 
     treated as having respectively under the Companies Act 1985 (the Act), and

(c)  on behalf of Schroders plc., our holding company, which is treated as 
     having an interest in all of the above shares under the Act by virtue of 
     its ownership of SIMNA Inc, SUTL and ourselves.


Letter from Alison Dunn, Regulatory Reporting Officer, Schroder Investment 
Management Limited


                                5P ORDINARY SHARES 

                                     SCHEDULE
 
               
REGISTRATION                                                             AMOUNT

British Coal Staff Superannuation a/c: P                                370,000
Mineworkers' Pension Scheme a/c: R                                      175,000 
Imperial Pensions Nominees Limited                                      500,000 
BT Globenet Nominees Ltd a/c: 6B                                        350,000
                                                                      1,395,000



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