Holding(s) in Company

Speedy Hire PLC
22 July 2004


Letter to Speedy Hire Plc
Dated 16 July 2004


5p ORDINARY SHARES ('SHARES')

We write to advise you that we, Schroder Investment Management Limited, have an 
interest in 6,607,684 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)   3,626,399 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,

(ii)  40,604 shares registered or to be registered in the name of our 
      wholly-owned subsidiary nominee company, Schroder Nominees Limited 
      (Schroder Nominees), and

(iii) 2,940,681 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 Limited 
(SIMNA Ltd), is managing (a) portfolio(s) on a similar basis holding a further 
732,922 shares which are registered or to be registered in the name of J P 
Morgan.

We believe that we, our subsidiary and affiliated company are therefore 
interested in an overall aggregate of 7,340,606 shares, representing some 
17.214% of the total number of shares in issue, namely 42,642,701.

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 Ltd, SUTL and ourselves.


                               5P ORDINARY SHARES

                                    SCHEDULE

REGISTRATION                                                AMOUNT

Banque Internationale a Luxembourg                          29,620
Chase Nominees Limited                                     378,674
British Coal Staff Superannuation a/c: P                 1,094,640
Mineworkers' Pension Scheme a/c: R                       1,035,265
Nortrust Nominees Limited                                  402,482

                                                         2,940,681


Letter from Schroder Investment Management Limited


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