H.R. OWEN PLC                                 

                           ACQUISITIONS AND DISPOSAL                           

H.R. Owen, the prestige car group, has announced today the acquisition of three
specialist franchises and the disposal of another through a number of separate
transactions.

The group has acquired the business and goodwill of Park West Chiswick, a
substantial BMW/Mini dealership in London, from BMW (GB). The gross
consideration was satisfied in cash for the assets of approximately �2.0
million and goodwill of �2.8 million. In 2002, a period during which the
dealership was substantially reorganised, the management accounts show that the
business made �0.5 million on turnover of �28 million.

This enlarges the group's BMW/Mini operations in West London. The group already
operates the dealership at Holland Park. The group announced in March that it
would be developing a new dealership at Park Royal and in April that it had
acquired the franchise for Heathrow. The group will make a further announcement
shortly.

The group has also acquired the business of the Brighton Mercedes-Benz
franchise from Rivervale of Brighton Limited. The gross consideration was
satisfied in cash for the assets of approximately �800,000 and goodwill of �0.5
million. The management accounts show that the business made a profit of �1.3
million on turnover of �39 million. The group already operates Mercedes-Benz
and Smart franchises for Gatwick and Crawley and last year acquired two
additional franchises in Redhill and Eastbourne. This transaction completes the
area acquisitions.

H.R. Owen has also announced that it has acquired the Guy Salmon Jaguar
dealership with outlets in London at Colindale and Hampstead from the Sytner
Group. Added to its existing London area for the Premier Automotive Group, this
brings the total representation to eight outlets for Jaguar, Land Rover and
Volvo. The group has also announced that it has disposed of Hollingdrake, its
Land Rover franchise in Stockport, to the Sytner Group.

In commenting, Nick Lancaster, Chief Executive, said: "Most vehicle
manufacturers have substantially reduced the number of their franchised
partners as a result of changes under new rules emanating from the review of
the Block Exemption in Europe. H.R. Owen has benefited from these changes with
the new acquisitions paving the way to completing several of the group's market
areas, many of which are amongst the largest volume opportunities in the UK."

H.R. Owen now operates five divisions:

BMW Group - 7 franchises for BMW/Mini and Rolls-Royce.

DaimlerChrysler Group - 7 franchises for Mercedes-Benz, Smart and Chrysler/
Jeep.

Premier Automotive Group - 14 franchises for Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo.

VW Group - 11 franchises for Bentley, Lamborghini, Audi, SEAT, VW and VW Van.

Specialist Division - 8 franchises for Lexus, Ferrari, Maserati, Lotus and
Nobel.

The group will be making a number of further franchise announcements during the
next twelve months.

Enquiries:

Nicholas R Lancaster

Chief Executive

Tel: 020 7245 1122

4 July 2003



END