Holding in Company

Weir Group PLC
18 May 2001




TO: Company Announcements Office

We confirm having today received notification from Schroder Investment
Management Limited in terms of the Companies Act 1985 that they have a
notifiable interest in the issued share capital of the company as set out in the
letter below:

FROM: Weir Group Ltd



LETTER TO: Weir Group Plc



THE WEIR GROUP PLC
12.5p ORDINARY SHARES ('SHARES')

We write to advise you that we, Schroder Investment Management Limited, have an
interest in 25,815,286 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) 12,536,746 shares registered or to be registered in the name of our
wholly-owned subsidiary nominee company, Schroder Nominees Limited (Schroder
Nominees),

(ii) 581,239 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.

(ii) 12,697,301 shares neither registered nor to be registered in the name of
Schroder Nominees or Chase Nominees Limited.  The registration details are shown
on the schedule below.

An affiliated company, Schroder Hermes, is managing 274,597 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 companies are therefore
interested in an overall aggregate of 26,089,883 shares, representing some
12.989% of the total number of shares in issue, namely 200,860,877 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 and Schroder Hermes 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 ourselves.


LETTER FROM:       Alison Dunn
                   Compliance Reporting Assistant
                   Schroder Investment Management Limited





                              THE WEIR GROUP PLC

                            12.5p ORDINARY SHARES


REGISTRATION                                                            AMOUNT

Bank of England Nominees Limited                                         5,500
Bank of New York                                                       100,000
Bath Street Nominees Limited                                            20,000
British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (Client) Nominees           1,453,900
Limited P a/c
BT Globenet Nominees Limited a/c: 6B                                   600,000
MSS Nominees Limited a/c: 767412                                        75,000
Chase Nominees Limited                                               2,793,295
Chase Nominees Limited a/c: F02391                                   2,130,039
Pictet & CIE                                                           296,640
Mineworkers Pension Scheme (Client) Nominees Ltd R a/c                 641,100
MSS Nominees Limited a/c: 756593                                       224,473
MSS Nominees Limited a/c: 831286                                     1,054,737
MSS Nominees Limited a/c: 809797                                       170,971
Nortrust Nominees Limited                                            1,185,441
Nutraco Nominees Limited                                               201,714
RBSTB Nominees Limited                                                  52,300
RBSTB Nominees Limited a/c: AAUKPS                                      82,500
RBSTB Nominees Limited a/c: ESPSBEB                                    121,627
RBSTB Nominees Limited a/c: ECC                                        325,000
Strand Nominees Limited a/c: EDIC                                        3,000
Nortrust Nominees Ltd a/c: SRC13                                        35,000
MSS Nominees Ltd a/c: 766653                                           468,464
MSS Nominees Ltd a/c: 809955                                           221,000
Schroder Executor & Trustee Company Limited                            186,100
Morgan Nominees a/c: B                                                 220,500
Royal Bank of Scotland                                                  29,000

                                                                    12,697,301