Acquisition

Kingfisher PLC
22 December 2000


        B&Q to Acquire 28 Large Format DIY Sites from J. Sainsbury plc

Kingfisher plc today announced that its DIY subsidiary Castorama Dubois
Investissements SCA ('CDI') is to purchase, through leading UK home improvement
retailer B&Q, 28 non-trading development sites from J. Sainsbury plc for a
maximum of £219m, payable in cash.

The sites, some of which are freehold and some leasehold, will be developed as
B&Q Warehouses. Most of the sites were to have been Homebase stores. The
agreement includes refunds should full planning permission not be granted for
any of the sites.

Kingfisher's Chief Executive, Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy, said: 'Over two thirds of B
&Q's sales growth comes from the Warehouse format. The acquisition of these
sites will enable us to accelerate the roll out of these highly successful
stores, further strengthening our leadership position in the UK'.
With 57 B&Q Warehouses currently trading in the UK, the company aims to have a
total of 125 by 2003/04.

                                    -ends-

                               Notes to Editors

*    B&Q is the UK market leader in the Repair, Maintenance and Improvement
     (RMI) market. Reported sales for the year to January 2000 were £2,312.3
     million, equating to 10.1% of the RMI market.

For further information:

Media Enquiries
John Eyre, Director of Corporate Affairs [phone]

Gail Lavielle, Director of Corporate     [phone]
Communication

Broker and Institutional Enquiries

Andrew Mills, Director of Investor       [phone]
Relations

Graham Fairbank, Head of Corporate       [phone]
Communication

Kingfisher plc                           [phone]

Kingfisher Website                      www.kingfisher.co.uk