Share placement

Admiral Group PLC
17 January 2005



THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS RESTRICTED AND IS NOT FOR PUBLICATION,
DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE IN OR INTO AUSTRALIA, CANADA OR JAPAN, SOUTH AFRICA OR
THE UNITED STATES.

17 January 2005


                               ADMIRAL GROUP PLC

              ESOT Placing of Ordinary Shares in Admiral Group plc

Admiral Group plc ('Admiral', or 'the Company') today announces that the
Employee Share Ownership Trust (the 'ESOT') has sold 5,202,266 ordinary shares
in the Company (the 'Shares') pursuant to a placing of Shares (the 'Placing')
arranged by Merrill Lynch International ('Merrill Lynch') and Citigroup Global
Markets U.K. Equity Limited ('Citigroup').

Merrill Lynch and Citigroup placed the Shares with institutional investors on 17
January 2005 at a price of 325p. Following completion of the Placing, the
remaining 5,091,789 shares previously held in ESOT and not sold in the Placing
are now held directly by the employee shareholders.

Admiral's Director shareholders did not participate in the Placing.

The Shares sold through the Placing represent 2.01% of Admiral's issued share
capital of 258,595,400 shares. The Placing was conducted to ensure the orderly
transfer of Shares into the secondary market following the expiry on 15 January
2005 of the ESOT lock-up restrictions imposed on shares received by certain of
the Company's employees put in place at the time of the initial public offering
('IPO') in September 2004.

For further information, please contact:

Admiral                                       029 2043 4224
Louisa Scadden
Justin Beddows

Financial Dynamics                            020 7269 7200
Robert Bailhache
Caroline Ledosquet

www.admiralgroup.co.uk

This announcement is not for publication or distribution, directly or
indirectly, in or into the United States of America (including its territories
and possessions, any state of the United States and the District of Columbia).
This announcement is not an offer of securities for sale into the United States.
The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under
the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in
the United States, except pursuant to an applicable exemption from registration.
No public offering of securities is being made in the United States.

Merrill Lynch International and Citigroup Capital Markets U.K. Equity Limited
acted for ESOT and no one else in relation to the Placing, and will not be
responsible to anyone other than ESOT for providing the protections offered to
their respective clients nor for providing advice in relation to the Placing.



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