Strategic Partnership

GB Group PLC
07 November 2002

                                                               7 November 2002

                              GB GROUP PLC ('GB')

GB GROUP ANNOUNCES STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP FOR ADDRESS DATA FOR OVER 220 COUNTRIES
                               AND TERRITORIES

GB Group plc today announces that it has signed an initial 5-year Strategic
Partnership with Optima Database Management Limited to licence, distribute and
incorporate Optima's global address data into its products and services. The
deal will enable GB to provide global data solutions to international businesses
and gain access to Optima's distribution network in the USA.

Under the terms of the deal, Bristol based Optima whose clients include
Microsoft, Sony, Lloyds of London and BMG Entertainment, will provide its
international address data products to GB and will also form a sales and
marketing alliance with GB.  GB will pay royalties to Optima on the sale of
products and services that make use of the international data.

The deal enables GB to combine the Optima Worldcode Knowledge BaseTM containing
global address data for the majority of the industrialised world within its own
products and services.  This significantly widens GB's access to fulfil projects
such as centralised billing and call centre operations which involve the
servicing of customers across multiple countries from a single service location.

This kind of operation is becoming increasingly common in Europe, USA and Asia
as multi national businesses consolidate and centralise their service
operations.  The combination will give customers the ability to benefit from
GB's extensive National RegisterTM database of 48 million individuals in the UK
together with Optima's comprehensive address data from over 220 countries
including USA, Germany, France, Japan and Australia.

GB also recently announced an exclusive deal with Gemserv Limited, a specialist
UK utility consultancy business, to utilise 28 million electricity Meter Point
Asset Numbers (MPAN) for use in anti-fraud, anti-money laundering and
anti-terrorism checks as part of its strategy to expand its presence in these
markets. A central part of this strategy is to expand GB's access to data which
can then be used in confirming the identity of individuals on-line or over the
telephone.  The global nature of Optima's data advances GB's strategy in this
area.

Richard Law, Chief Executive of GB said:

'I am very pleased to have signed this Strategic Partnership with Optima, which
represents an opportunity for GB to expand its presence in the international
data services market and also enables the Group to advance its authentication
and anti-fraud strategy.

The deal underlines GB's philosophy, which is to identify and develop
opportunities with partners from which both parties can gain significant
strategic advantage by combining their existing capabilities.  GB would have
needed to incur significant cost and delay in developing its access to
international data which the deal with Optima brings at a stroke.  Optima
likewise will benefit from GB's market presence and its reach into an existing
blue chip customer base of international clients.'

Matthew Furneaux, Managing Director of Optima said:

'This is an exciting development for Optima. Since our formation in 1999 Optima
has become a leading player in Global Data Quality tools with established
operations both in Europe and the USA.  I believe this agreement brings with it
significant synergies to both businesses in terms of access to market, new uses
of the combined data of Optima and GB along with common sales and marketing
initiatives. The combination of GB's and Optima's best of breed solutions makes
for a very powerful proposition.'


 For further information, please contact:

 GB Group plc                                                   01244 657333
 Richard Law, Chief Executive

 Optima Database Management Ltd                                 01275 337303
 Matthew Furneaux, Managing Director

 Weber Shandwick Square Mile                                    020 7950 2800
 Richard Hews
 Christian San Jose


About GB Group plc:

GB Group plc, provides a range of Customer Relationship Management ('CRM')
products and services to clients such as Bank of Ireland, WHSmith, Britannia
Music and Lloyds TSB, helping them to understand and manage their millions of
customers more effectively in order to increase sales growth, profitability and
investment within their businesses.


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