New ordinary & B shares

Sainsbury(J) PLC
19 July 2004

19 July 2004

J Sainsbury plc

Issue and redemption of B shares and consolidation of existing ordinary shares

At the Extraordinary General Meeting of J Sainsbury plc held on 12 July 2004
shareholders approved a return of capital, by way of a B share scheme, of 35p
for each existing issued ordinary share held at the close of business on 16 July
2004 and the consolidation of existing ordinary shares on the basis of 7 new
ordinary shares for 8 existing ordinary shares.

The new ordinary shares and the B shares have today been admitted to the London
Stock Exchange official list, and commence trading today.

A total of 1,943,173,266 B Shares were issued today. Following the issue of the
B Shares, 1,943,173,266 existing ordinary shares were consolidated into
1,700,276,607 new ordinary shares.

Enquiries:

Investor relations                                       Media
[phone]                                     [phone]
Roger Matthews                                           Jan Shawe
Lynda Ashton                                             Pip Wood


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