Bid for Castorama Minority

Kingfisher PLC
17 May 2002


CHALLENGE TO KINGFISHER BID FOR CASTORAMA REJECTED BY COURT

This afternoon the President of the commercial court (Tribunal de Commerce) of
Lille turned down the request from the A Commandites, lead by Mr Jean-Hugues
Loyez, who is also President of the management board of Castorama and Mr Jean-
Luc Dubois for a court mediator to be appointed. 

By refusing the request of the A Commandites, the judge considered that their 
request did not have any serious founding and was not justified in the 
circumstances 

By this decision, the court rejected the A Commandites' interpretation of the 
rules set out in the articles of Castorama for the procedure to be implemented 
for Kingfisher to gain sole control of Castorama.  As Kingfisher has repeated 
throughout, this confirms that the action taken by Kingfisher respects the 
letter and the spirit of the provisions of the articles.



Further Enquiries:

Broker and Institutional Enquiries

Ian Harding, Director of Investor Relations                                      [phone]

Media Enquiries:
Andrew Mills, Director of Corporate Affairs                                      [phone]
Jonathan Miller, Head of Corporate Comms, UK                                     [phone]

France

Graham Fairbank, Head of Corporate Comms                                        [phone]

Kingfisher plc                                                                   [phone]

Kingfisher Website                                                                 www.kingfisher.com

The Maitland Consultancy
Angus Maitland  / Duncan Campbell-Smith                                          [phone]

Euro RCSG C&O
Laurent Wormser                                                                 [phone]
Marie-Noelle Brouaux                                                            [phone]
.



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