ARG Joint venture

GUS PLC
23 August 2006



23 August 2006

                                    GUS plc
                        ARG joint venture with Barclays


GUS plc, the retail and business services group, today announces that Argos
Limited, part of ARG, and Barclays Bank PLC have signed a Shareholders'
Agreement in relation to a 50:50 joint venture company. The joint venture will
develop an Argos credit card proposition and new personal loan products for
Argos and Homebase. ARG's existing Argos and Homebase store card operations are
not impacted by this arrangement.


Commenting on the joint venture, Terry Duddy, Chief Executive of Argos Retail
Group, said:


'This joint venture will enable the future development of new additional lending
products that will continue to enhance the choice, value and convenience that we
offer our customers. We are pleased to be working in partnership with Barclays,
one of the largest financial services companies in the world.'


Additional information


Each party has made a de minimis capital contribution to the joint venture. A
Services Agreement will be entered into between Argos Limited, Barclays Bank PLC
and the joint venture company (ARG Personal Finance Limited) later this year
when the business of the joint venture company will become fully operational. If
the Services Agreement is not signed by 31 December 2006, the Shareholders'
Agreement will terminate without prejudice to Argos Limited or Barclays Bank
PLC.


Enquiries


GUS

Richard Ashton         Finance Director, ARG                 020 7495 0070
Stuart Ford            Head of Investor Relations, ARG


Finsbury
Rollo Head                                                   020 7251 3801


GUS announcements are available on its website, www.gusplc.com.


About ARG
ARG is the UK's leading home and general merchandise retailer with sales of over
£5.5 billion in the year ended 31 March 2006. It sells products under two
distinctive and complementary retail brands, Argos and Homebase.


Argos is a unique retailer recognised for choice, value and convenience. It
sells over 17,000 general merchandise products for the home through its network
of more than 650 stores, online and over the phone. Argos' Internet site,
www.argos.co.uk, is the second most popular Internet retail site in the UK.


Homebase is the UK's second largest home improvement retailer and is recognised
for choice, style and customer service across the wider home enhancement market.
It has more than 300 large, out of town stores, which sell over 30,000 products,
as well as a growing Internet offering at www.homebase.co.uk.


Argos and Homebase are supported by an in-house financial services business, ARG
Financial Services, which provides a range of credit and insurance products to
their customers through all customer-facing channels of stores, online and over
the phone. ARG Financial Services is one of the largest store card providers in
the UK, having over one million active store card customers.


About Barclays Bank PLC
Barclays Bank PLC is a major global financial services provider engaged in
retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth
management and investment management services. We are one of the largest
financial services companies in the world by market capitalisation. Operating in
over 60 countries and employing over 118,000 people, we move, lend, invest and
protect money for over 25 million customers and clients worldwide. With over 300
years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays Bank PLC has six major
businesses including Barclaycard.


Barclaycard is one of the leading credit card businesses in Europe and has 11.2
million UK customers and 5.3 million international cards in issue.


Certain statements made in this announcement are forward-looking statements.
Such statements are based on current expectations and are subject to a number of
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ
materially from any expected future events or results referred to in these
forward-looking statements.




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