Share Consolidation Effective

Reed Elsevier PLC
07 January 2008




                                  News Release

           Issued on behalf of Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV


                         7.00am (GMT) 7 January 2008



                         SHARE CONSOLIDATION EFFECTIVE



Further to Reed Elsevier's announcement of 13 December 2007 regarding the
Special Distribution and Share Consolidation in relation to the sale of its
Harcourt Education division, the Share Consolidation for both Reed Elsevier PLC
and Reed Elsevier NV has today become effective. Details regarding the new
shares in issue and other market matters are set out below.



Reed Elsevier PLC



New Reed Elsevier PLC Ordinary Shares have been admitted to the Official List of
the Financial Services Authority effective today and trading will commence at
8.00am (GMT).



A total of 1,130,473,244 New Reed Elsevier PLC Ordinary Shares of 14 51/116
pence each will be admitted to trading (consolidated from 1,305,891,506 issued
ordinary shares of 12.5 pence each in the capital of Reed Elsevier PLC,
including treasury shares, as at close on 4 January 2008). The ISIN number for
the New Reed Elsevier PLC Ordinary Shares is GB00B2B0DG97.  The Company's London
Stock Exchange trading symbol remains REL.



Payment of the Special Distribution on the Existing Reed Elsevier PLC Ordinary
Shares, settlement of amounts relating to any fractional entitlements to New
Reed Elsevier PLC Ordinary Shares and despatch of certificates for New Reed
Elsevier PLC Ordinary Shares in Certificated Form will take place on 18 January
2008.



Following the Share Consolidation, Reed Elsevier PLC will hold 31,031,298 New
Reed Elsevier PLC Ordinary Shares in treasury. Therefore, the total number of
New Reed Elsevier PLC Ordinary Shares in issue (excluding treasury shares, other
than those shares held by the Employee Benefit Trust) is 1,099,441,946, and this
figure may be used by shareholders in Reed Elsevier PLC as the denominator for
the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify
their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of Reed
Elsevier PLC under the Financial Service Authority's Disclosure and Transparency
Rules.



Reed Elsevier PLC has made a block listing application for 23,559,616 unissued
New Reed Elsevier PLC Ordinary Shares of 14 51/116 pence. These relate to the
existing block listed and unissued shares which are available for issue under
Reed Elsevier's share schemes. The block listing of New Ordinary Shares consist
of 320,010 shares under the Reed Elsevier Group plc SAYE Share Option Scheme
(1993), 1,252,329 shares under the Reed Elsevier Group plc SAYE Share Option
Scheme (2003), 9,760,588 shares under the Reed Elsevier Group plc Executive
Share Option Scheme (1993), 9,253,767 shares under the Reed Elsevier Group plc
Executive Share Option Scheme (2003) and 2,972,922 shares under the Reed
Elsevier Group plc Long Term Incentive Share Option Scheme.



Reed Elsevier NV



New Reed Elsevier NV Ordinary Shares have been admitted to Eurolist by Euronext
Amsterdam effective today and trading will commence at 9.00am (CET).



A total of 658,127,218 New Reed Elsevier NV Ordinary Shares of €0.07 have been
admitted to trading (consolidated from 760,250,407 issued ordinary shares of
€0.06 each in the capital of Reed Elsevier NV, including treasury shares, as at
close of trading on 4 January 2008). The ISIN code and the Euronext code for the
New Reed Elsevier NV Ordinary Shares is NL00006144495. The new national code is
614449. The Company's Euronext trading symbol remains REN.



Payment of the Special Distribution on the Existing Reed Elsevier NV Ordinary
Shares and settlement of amounts relating to any fractional entitlements to New
Reed Elsevier NV Ordinary Shares will take place on 18 January 2008.



Following the Share Consolidation, Reed Elsevier NV will hold 21,902,791 New
Reed Elsevier NV Ordinary Shares of €0.07 in treasury, not including those
shares held by the Employee Benefit Trust.



The R-shares in Reed Elsevier NV held by Reed Elsevier PLC of nominal value
€0.60 have also been consolidated resulting in 4,050,720 New R-shares of nominal
value €0.70 being held by Reed Elsevier PLC (consolidated from 4,679,280
R-shares outstanding on 4 January 2008).







                                    - ends -







For further information please contact:



Sybella Stanley

[phone]


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