Holding(s) in Company

Speedy Hire PLC
5 August 2003


Letter to Speedy Hire Plc
Dated 5 August 2003

5p ORDINARY SHARES ('SHARES')

We write to advise you that we, Schroder Investment Management Limited, have an
interest in 5,742,417 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)  3,685,282 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) 2,057,135 shares neither registered nor to be registered in the name of
     Schroder Nominees. The registration details are shown on the schedule 
     below.

An affiliated company, Schroder Investment Management North America Inc (SIMNA
Inc), is managing (a) portfolio(s) on a similar basis holding a further 284,864
shares which are registered or to be registered in the name of JP Morgan.

We believe that we, our subsidiary and affiliated company are therefore
interested in an overall aggregate of 6,027,281 shares, representing some
14.151% of the total number of shares in issue, namely 42,593,678.

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.
 

                         5P ORDINARY SHARES 

                              SCHEDULE

REGISTRATION                                                  AMOUNT

Chase Nominees Limited                                        200,000 
British Coal Staff Superannuation a/c: P                      823,435
Mineworkers' Pension Scheme a/c: R                            433,700
Imperial Pensions Nominees Limited                            350,000 
BT Globenet Nominees Ltd a/c: 6B                              250,000
                                                          
                                                            2,057,135


Letter from Schroder Investment Management Limited


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