Pre-Close Update

Yule Catto & Co PLC
11 December 2003


                            YULE CATTO & COMPANY PLC
                                        
                                Pre-Close Update

In keeping with market practice, Yule Catto & Company plc is today issuing its
pre-close trading statement for the financial year to 31 December 2003, prior to
the company's preliminary results announcement, scheduled for Thursday March 4
2004.

The company confirms that trading in the second half of 2003 has seen reasonable
volumes across all business sectors and that results should meet expectations.

However, in line with the chemical industry in general, the persistently high
price of oil is continuing to make it difficult to predict raw material prices
for 2004 and the current weakness of the US dollar is a further challenge.
Following the launch of competitive generic products, the outlook for
omeprazole, one of our main generic pharmaceutical actives, in the USA also
remains somewhat unclear.

The strategy of growing our water-based polymers is bearing fruit, with pleasing
volumes being sold from our new Malaysian and Belgian facilities. The generic
and ethical product development programme for our Pharma business continues to
widen and deepen with the benefits likely to emerge from 2005 onwards. To
improve performance, initiatives to restructure some of the performance chemical
businesses and bring new innovative products to market are ongoing.

We remain confident that the present business strategy will deliver good growth
over the medium and long term for Yule Catto.

                                                                11 December 2003

ENQUIRIES:

YULE CATTO                                                    Tel: [phone]
Alex Walker, Chief Executive
Sean Cummins, Finance Director

COLLEGE HILL                                                  Tel: [phone]
Gareth David                                 email: [e-mail]
Crawford Burden                            email:[e-mail]
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