Close Period Trading Update

Ricardo PLC
05 January 2005


5 January 2005


                                Ricardo plc

                        Close Period Trading Update

The Board of Ricardo plc is today providing a trading update ahead of its
results in respect of the half year ended 31 December 2004. Ricardo plans to
announce its Interim Results on Monday 21 February 2005.

The Group continued to see an improving performance during the first half. Even
though the pressures facing the global automotive market continue to create
uncertainty for the industry as a whole, we are seeing more favourable prospects
for our business compared to this time last year. During the period, we were
pleased to secure a number of contracts from a broader and improved customer
base. Our order book continued to grow and was up 15% year on year.

Our UK businesses continued to make progress. We are pleased to report that
Ricardo Consulting Engineers had a good first half and performed slightly ahead
of expectations and our electronics business performed particularly well. These
better performances helped to offset weak trading at our transmissions and
vehicle engineering businesses which both continue to face difficult market
conditions.

Ricardo Strategic Consulting also had a good first half. It performed ahead of
expectations and moved into profit in the period as anticipated at the time of
our preliminary results.

Whilst performance in our US and German operations was very much as anticipated,
we see more scope for improvement. Business in Asia, in particular China and
Japan is developing well, and we continue to see new opportunities and interest
from these markets.

The progress made in the first half gives us increasing confidence in our
ability to deliver a result for the full year in line with the Group's
expectations. However, whilst it is pleasing that performance in the first half
of the year was a little ahead of expectations, we consider it to be too early
to revise our view on the outturn for the full year.

Enquiries:

Ricardo plc                                                  Tel: [phone]
Rodney Westhead, Chief Executive
Andrew Goodburn, Finance Director
www.Ricardo.com
-----------------

Gavin Anderson & Company                                     Tel: [phone]
Laura Hickman/Charlotte Stone




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