Holding(s) in Company

Speedy Hire PLC
8 July 2002



LETTER TO SPEEDY HIRE PLC - 4 JULY 2002

5p ORDINARY SHARES ('SHARES')

We write to advise you that we, Schroder Investment Management Limited, have an
interest in 6,137,866 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)  4,417,866 shares held in (a) unit trust(s) operated and managed by an 
     affiliated company, Schroder Unit Trusts Limited (SUTL), and registered or 
     to be registered in the name of Chase Nominees Limited and,

(ii) 1,720,000 shares neither registered nor to be registered in the name of 
     Schroder Nominees. The registration details are shown on the schedule below.

A wholly-owned subsidiary, Schroder Investment Management North America Limited
(SIMNA Ltd), is managing on a discretionary basis (a) portfolio(s) holding a
further 130,000 shares. These shares are registered or to be registered in the
name of Chase Nominees Limited.

An affiliated company, Schroder Investment Management North America Inc (SIMNA
Inc), is managing (a) portfolio(s) on a similar basis holding a further 93,800
shares, 63,800 shares are registered or to be registered in the name of Chase
Nominees Limited, while 30,000 shares are registered or to be registered in the
name of State Street.

We believe that we, our subsidiary and affiliated company are therefore
interested in an overall aggregate of 6,361,666 shares, representing some
14.955% of the total number of shares in issue, namely 42,538,835.

This notification is made to you:-

(a) in respect of our interest as investment,

(b) on behalf of SIMNA Inc and SUTL in relation to the interests they are 
    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 SIMNA Inc, SIMNA Ltd, SUTL and ourselves.

LETTER FROM: SCHRODERS plc


                         5P ORDINARY SHARES 

                             SCHEDULE
 
REGISTRATION                                        AMOUNT

British Coal Staff Superannuation a/c: P            607,000    
Mineworkers' Pension Scheme a/c: R                  288,000
Imperial Pensions Nominees Limited                  475,000
BT Globenet Nominees Ltd a/c: 6B                    350,000

                                                  1,720,000



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