Acquisition

Wilmington Group Plc
16 October 2006


Embargoed until 0700                                             16 October 2006

                              WILMINGTON GROUP plc


                       ACQUISITION OF MERCIA GROUP LIMITED


Wilmington Group plc ('Wilmington' or 'the Group'), the professional information
and training group, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Mercia Group
Limited ('Mercia').

Wilmington's wholly-owned subsidiary, Central Law Training Limited ('CLT'), has
acquired 82.7% of the issued share capital of Mercia for a consideration of
£7.1m in cash. CLT has also entered into put and call option arrangements for
the acquisition of the outstanding 17.3% of Mercia to be acquired by 2016. The
maximum aggregate consideration payable for 100% of Mercia will be £11.5m.

Mercia which was established in 1979, employs 70 staff and an extensive team of
presenters. It is one of the largest independent providers of training and
support services to the accountancy profession. Mercia has a client base of
approximately 4,000 independent accounting practices including over 1,000
subscription clients. Mercia is a well established and profitable business
providing training and publishing for accountancy firms including:-

   • a complete practical training programme for the independent accountancy
     practice;
   • marketing support for individual firms; and
   • a range of technical manuals supporting documents, practice reviews and
     general technical support for accountancy practices.

In the year ended 30 June 2006 Mercia's turnover was £6.35m (2005: £5.78m) and
it generated profit before tax of £687k (2005: £400k). As a result of the change
of ownership various costs will not now be incurred. On this basis, the
normalised profit before tax for the year ended 30th June 2006 would have been
£890k.

The acquisition of Mercia will strengthen Wilmington's Legal & Regulatory
division and will provide exciting opportunities for leveraging key brands and
databases into the accountancy sector. The strategic fit of Mercia, which
principally serves the needs of accountants in private practice, and Quorum
Training, which was acquired in May 2005 and which principally works with
finance professionals in commerce and industry, will provide the opportunity for
further growth.

Charles Brady, Chief Executive of Wilmington, said: 'We have known the
management team of Mercia for many years. They have built a strong and growing
subscription based business serving the accountancy profession, which will
complement CLT's 4600 subscription members in the legal market. We anticipate
many benefits for both companies'.


                                     -ends-

For further information, please contact:

Wilmington Group

Charles Brady, Chief Executive                                     0207 422 6800
Basil Brookes, Finance Director

Weber Shandwick Square Mile
Nick Oborne, Kirsty Raper or Helen Thomas                          0207 067 0700


Notes to Editors

Wilmington Group plc is one of the UK's leading providers of information and
training for professional business markets. The Group provides training,
arranges industry events and publishes magazines, directories, databases and
special reports focused primarily on its four principal sectors of Legal &
Regulatory, Healthcare, Media & Entertainment and Design & Construction.
Capitalised at approximately £175 million, Wilmington floated on the London
Stock Exchange in 1995.




                      This information is provided by RNS
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