Purchase of Own Securities

Fleming Overseas Inv Trust PLC
17 May 2001


                         STOCK EXCHANGE ANNOUNCEMENT


                  THE FLEMING OVERSEAS INVESTMENT TRUST PLC

                REPURCHASE OF ORDINARY SHARES FOR CANCELLATION


The Fleming Overseas Investment Trust plc announces that today in the market
they purchased for cancellation 3,270,525 ordinary shares at 598.87p per share
representing 4.04% of the ordinary shares in issue.

The number of shares repurchased to date now totals 55,077,926.

The remaining shares in issue following this repurchase total 77,726,074.


17th May 2001


For further information, please contact:

Fraser Easton  (Company Secretary)

JP Morgan Fleming Asset Management (UK) Limited, 020 7742 3425


Tom Durie

HSBC Securities - Stockbrokers to the Company, 020 7336 2004