Holding in Company

Johnson,Matthey PLC
23 March 2001


                    NOTIFICATION OF MAJOR INTERESTS IN SHARES


1     Name of company                   Johnson Matthey plc

2     Name of shareholder having        Schroder Investment Management Ltd
      a major interest

3     Person with holding               As in 2 above

4     Name of registered holder         As per schedule below 

5     Number of shares/amount of        n/a
      stock acquired

6     Percentage of issued class        n/a

7     Number of shares/amount           2,347,964
      of stock disposed          

8     Percentage of issued class        1.05%

9     Class of security                 Ordinary £1 shares

10    Date of transaction               not known

11    Date company informed             23 March 2001

12    Total holding following           26,436,460
      this notification            

13    Total percentage holding          11.88%
      of issued class following 
      this notification            

14    Any additional information

15    Name of contact and telephone     Lynne Cossey
      number for queries                0207 269 8461

16    Name of authorised company        Lynne Cossey
      official responsible for
      making this notification     

Date of this notification:              23 March 2001





LETTER TO:   Johnson Matthey plc 
LETTER DATE: 22 March 2001

£1 ORDINARY SHARES ('SHARES')

We write to advise you that we, Schroder Investment Management Limited, have an
interest in 26,141,164 shares which are held in portfolios managed by us on a
discretionary basis for clients under investment management agreements.

Included in this figure are:

(i)  13,000,780 shares registered or to be registered in the name of our
     wholly-owned subsidiary nominee company, Schroder Nominees Limited
     (Schroder Nominees),

(ii) 2,110,384 shares held in (a) unit trust(s) operated and managed by
     another wholly-owned subsidiary, Schroder Unit Trusts Limited (SUTL), and
     registered or to be registered in the name of Chase Nominees Limited
     
(iii)11,030,000 shares neither registered nor to be registered in the name of
     Schroder Nominees Limited. The registration details are shown in the
     schedule below.


Another affiliated company, Schroder Hermes, is managing 295,296 shares in (a)
portfolio(s) on a passive (index tracker) basis for clients under investment
management agreements. These shares are registered or to be registered in the
name of Chase Nominees Limited.

We believe that we and our subsidiary and affiliated company are therefore
interested in an overall aggregate of 26,436,460 shares, representing some
11.890% of the total number of shares in issue, namely 222,472,608 shares.


This notification is made to you:

(a) in respect of our interest as investment managers and also by virtue of the
    fact that we are the parent company of SUTL,

(b) on behalf of SUTL, Schroder Hermes in relation to the interest it is treated
    as having respectively under the Companies Act 1985 (the Act), and

(c) on behalf of Schroders plc., our holding company, which is treated as
    having an interest in all of the above shares under the Act by virtue of
    its ownership of ourselves.


We shall be grateful if you will kindly confirm the total number of shares
currently in issue.


                          JOHNSON MATTHEY PLC

                               SCHEDULE

                
REGISTRATION                                             AMOUNT

Bank of New York                                         25,000
Banque Internationale du Luxembourg                      20,000
Bath Street Nominees Limited                              5,756
British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (Client)       744,304
 Nominees Ltd a/c: P
BT Globenet Nominees Limited a/c: 6B                    685,000
Chase Manhattan Bank                                    154,800
Chase Nominees Limited                                1,553,007
Chase Nominees Limited a/c: F02391                      593,750
Deutsche Bank                                            29,875
HSBC Bank International a/c 10096301                     28,000
HSBC Global Custody Nominee (UK) Ltd a/c: 771401         32,000
Mineworkers Pension Scheme (Client) Nominees            320,474 
 Limited a/c: R                                                                 
Morgan Nominees Limited 'A' a/c                           7,820
Morgan Nominees Limited 'B' a/c                         217,761
Morgan Nominees Limited a/c: GRL                        116,000
MSS Nominees Limited a/c: 756593                         83,712
MSS Nominees Limited a/c: 759371                         22,100
MSS Nominees Limited a/c: 766653                        469,000
MSS Nominees Limited a/c: 823666                         50,000
MSS Nominees Limited a/c: 846435                         71,214
MSS Nominees Limited a/c: 831286                        826,282
MSS Nominees Limited a/c: 809797                        118,357
MSS Nominees Limited a/c: 809803                         58,966
Network Nominees (Six) Ltd                              612,900
Nortrust Nominees Limited                             2,016,043
Nortrust Nominees Limited a/c: SRC13                     26,250
Nortrust Nominees Limited a/c: BOCPF                    135,375
Nutraco Nominees Limited                                154,896
Nutraco Nominees Ltd a/c GWPPCIF                        344,600
Nutraco Nominees Ltd a/c: GWPPMPS                        66,000
Pictet & Cie                                            144,000
RBSTB Nominees Limited                                  275,450
RBSTB Nominees Ltd a/c ECC                              151,000
RBSTB Nominees Ltd a/c ESPSBEB                          194,692
RBSTB Nominees Ltd a/c: LAUR                             13,000
RBSTB Nominees Ltd a/c: AAUKPS                           54,256
RBS Trust Bank Nominees Ltd a/c: SUNPEN                   2,500
Royal Bank of Scotland                                   10,020
Schroder Executor & Trustee Company Limited             137,800
State Street Nominees Limited                           345,400
State Street Nominees Limited a/c: 4L9Q                 100,000

                                                     11,017,360

Held by Schroders Offices Abroad
Hong Kong                                                12,640

Overall total                                        11,030,000