Acquisition

Creston PLC
08 July 2005



Date:                  8 July 2005

On behalf of:          Creston Plc (the 'Company' or 'Group')

Under embargo until    0700 hours


                    CRESTON ACQUIRES RED DOOR COMMUNICATIONS



Acquisition of Red Door Communications for a maximum consideration of £13.5
million


Creston Plc ("Creston" or the "Group"), the diversified international marketing
services group, is pleased to announce the acquisition of specialist healthcare
PR agency Red Door Communications Limited ("Red Door Communications").  The
initial consideration is of £6.5 million, up to £0.3 million dependent on the
net assets of Red Door Communications and a further maximum deferred
consideration of up to £6.7 million dependent on the financial performance in
the period to 31 March 2009.



Red Door Communications, which is based in London, is a company engaged in the
provision of public relations and medical education in the healthcare sector.
The acquisition is the seventh made by Creston to date and is in line with its
strategy of building a diversified international marketing services group
through a combination of organic growth and selective acquisitions.


Information on Red Door Communications



Red Door Communications is an independent consultancy that was established by
Catherine Warne and Julia Harries in 2000 and is based in Mortlake, London.  The
agency currently employs 32 personnel.



Red Door Communications provides a broad range of public relations, medical
education programmes, marketing communications and consultancy to its clients in
the pharmaceutical industry.  Current clients include: AstraZeneca United
Kingdom, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, The British Coffee Association, Roche
Diagnostics and Schering Healthcare.



Red Door Communications is a founder member of the Healthcare Communications
Agency and was seventh in the 2005 PR Week's healthcare consultancy league
table. It was also named as the fastest growing healthcare consultancy in 2004
and has received a number of other industry awards including Communique
Consultancy of the Year in 2004 and SABRE European Healthcare Consultancy of the
Year 2004/2005.



Red Door Communications has demonstrated consistent year on year growth since
its formation in 2000 and for the year ended 31 December 2004, Red Door
Communications had revenues of £3.6 million and profit before taxation was £0.96
million.  At 31 December 2004 the gross assets of Red Door Communications were
£1.76 million.  Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, Red Door
Communications will have minimum net assets on completion of £0.9 million, which
will include a minimum of £0.7 million of cash.



The maximum consideration payable is up to £13.5 million to be satisfied by:



-  an initial consideration of £6.5 million, to be satisfied by a
   payment of £4.1 million in cash and the issue of 1,595,724 new ordinary 
   shares;

-  up to a further £0.3 million dependent on the net assets of Red Door
   Communications at completion; and

-  a deferred consideration of up to £6.7 million dependent on the
   financial performance of Red Door Communications in the period to 31 March 
   2009, which includes an interim deferred consideration of up to a maximum of 
   £3.0 million payable  dependent on the financial performance of Red Door
   Communications in the period to 31 March 2008.  The maximum deferred
   consideration will become payable if Red Door Communications's average growth 
   in profit before interest and taxation in the period to 31 March 2009 
   increases by more than 30 per cent. per annum.


The initial cash consideration will be financed from Creston's existing cash
resources and banking facilities.



Application will be made to the UK Listing Authority for 1,595,724 new ordinary
shares of 10 pence each in the capital of Creston to be admitted to the Official
List of the UK Listing Authority and to trading on the London Stock Exchange's
market for listed securities.  It is expected that admission will take place and
dealings will commence in such new ordinary shares on 14 July 2005.



Don Elgie, Chief Executive of Creston Plc said:



"I am delighted to be able to announce today that Red Door Communications will
be joining Creston Plc.  In a tightly competitive field, Red Door Communications
is one of the most successful healthcare PR agencies, with an exceptional track
record of both client and staff retention and a high percentage of organic
growth.  We are confident that the addition of Red Door Communications to the
Group will enable even greater synergies and opportunities for growth between
Group agencies, and look forward to working closely with Catherine and her staff
to make that happen."



Catherine Warne, Managing Director of Red Door Communications commented:



"In Don Elgie and Creston Plc we have found a partner who shares our ethos and
passion for our work.  We are confident that joining Creston will help us
achieve our full potential as a leading specialist healthcare PR agency and
further our organic growth both in the UK and internationally, whilst allowing
us to retain the unique elements that have made Red Door Communications one of
the fastest growing and most successful agencies in our field."


For further information:


Creston Plc                                  020 7930 9757

Don Elgie


Red Door Communications Limited              020 8392 8055

Catherine Warne


Redleaf Communications Limited                          20 7955 1410

Wendy Timmons

Miranda Good



Further information required under Listing Rule 10.4.1 (j)


Catherine Warne, Managing Director - Red Door Communications Limited

Catherine Warne founded Red Door Communications Limited in 2000 with Julia
Harries. She has over 16 years experience in healthcare communications in
ethical and OTC medicine, patient advocacy and issues management.  Prior to
founding Red Door Communications Limited, she was Managing Director of GCI
Healthcare in 1995.  She has also held positions with Edelman Worldwide, Lowe
Fusion and Shire Health Communications.



Julia Harries, Director - Red Door Communications Limited

Julia Harries founded Red Door Communications Limited in 2000 with Catherine
Warne.  Prior to founding Red Door Communications Limited she was an Associate
Director at GCI Healthcare from 1995.  She has also worked at Edelman Medical
Communications .


             Publication quality photographs are available through
                      Redleaf on the numbers shown above.


Notes to Editors:



  • Further information on Red Door Communications is available at
    www.rdcomms.com


About Creston Plc



Creston is fully listed on the London Stock Exchange under CRE.LN.  Additional
information is available on www.creston.com.  Creston's audited results for the
year to 31 March 2005 were released on 22 June 2005, showing a 68% rise in PBT
to £3.5million (2004: £2.1million) and a 25% rise in diluted EPS to 10.56 (2004:
8.47).



Creston's strategy is to build a diversified international marketing services
group through a combination of organic growth and selective acquisitions.  The
Board's aim is to identify synergistic benefits between currently independent
marketing services companies offering premium services such as market research,
direct marketing, advertising, PR and other areas of marketing communications.



Since January 2001, when the Company was repositioned as a marketing services
group, Creston has made six significant acquisitions, which have demonstrated
growth despite challenging market conditions:


January 2001               Acquisition of Marketing Sciences Limited, an international quantitative and
                           qualitative market research company, based in Winchester

November 2001              Acquisition of The Real Adventure Marketing Communications Limited, a
                           national direct marketing and CRM company, based in Bath

December 2002              Acquisition of EMO Group Limited, a national channel marketing communications
                           company, based in Swindon and Bristol

October 2003               Acquisition of Nelson Bostock Communications Limited, a London based public
                           relations agency

September 2004             Acquisition of CML Research Limited, a London based qualitative market
                           research business

March 2005                 Acquisition of DLKW Group, a London based advertising and communications
                           group



Together these companies boast a range of blue-chip clients including Lloyds
Black Horse, Unilever, Kimberly-Clark, Tesco, Toshiba, Canon, BMW (UK), MINI,
Pfizer, Cow & Gate, Bacardi-Martini, Nestle Rowntree, NEC, NTL, George Wimpey,
Scottish Courage, Tropicana, Vodafone, HBOS, COI, General Motors, E-Bay, W H
Smith, Burger King and Financial Times.


                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange