Exercise of options

Wilmington Group Plc 31 January 2008 Wilmington Group Plc 31 January 2008 Wilmington Group plc ('Wilmington' or the 'Company') announces that options held by Colin Bailey-Wood, a former senior manager of businesses disposed of by the Company on 14 August 2007, over 100,000 ordinary shares of 5p each in the Company have today been exercised. These options were all exercisable at 146.5p and were private options granted by certain individuals who were all directors of the Company at the time of grant, namely Rory Conwell, Ahmed Zahedieh and Brian Gilbert, over shares in the Company held by them. The grant was announced to the market on 28 February 2002. Rory Conwell continues to be an executive director of the Company and Ahmed Zahedieh is company secretary. Colin Bailey-Wood was a senior manager of the businesses that the Company disposed of on 14 August 2007, and the terms on which the options were granted provide that Colin has 6 months from the date of such sale to exercise such options, which is up until 14 February 2008. Colin is no longer employed by the Company or any of its subsidiaries and as such is not subject to the provisions of the Model Code under the Listing Rules of the UKLA ('Model Code'). The Company is currently in a close period until the release of its interim numbers at the end of February 2008. The exercise of the options by Colin Bailey-Wood means that Rory Conwell and Ahmed Zahedieh are obliged to sell shares in the Company to him. The sale by them of these shares would technically be caught by the Model Code as they are both 'restricted persons' within the meaning of the Model Code and the Company is in a close period. However, as the exercise of the options is outside of their control and, if Colin was not allowed to exercise such options he would be time barred from doing so and hence would lose the benefit of such options, the Company has deemed it appropriate in these circumstances to permit Rory Conwell and Ahmed Zahedieh to sell shares in the Company held by them to Colin Bailey-Wood pursuant to the exercise of such options. As a result of this, the details of the shares held and the remaining options granted over such shares, by Rory Conwell and Ahmed Zahedieh are as follows: Rory Conwell Ahmed Zahedieh Total number of shares in issue in which director/co secretary is interested (including shares subject to option) 3,909,356 1,916,805 Share number as a percentage of ordinary issued share capital 4.64% 2.27% Number of ordinary shares over which options granted 28,571 14,286 Such number as a percentage of the Ordinary issued share capital 0.03% 0.02% Enquiries: Ahmed Zahedieh Company Secretary 0207 422 6800 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange