17th Jan 2006 16:37
17 January 2006Notification of Share Interest - Sections 198-203 of the Companies Act 19851. We have received a notice dated 16th January 2006 from an official of TheGoldman Sachs Group Inc., the extract of which is as follows:-"We hereby notify you that as at close of business on 12th January 2006, TheGoldman Sachs Group Inc ("GS Inc") of 85 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004, USA,was interested, by attribution only, in a total of 11,940,958 shares.Of these 11,940,958 shares: * The interest in 5,341,623 shares arose from the interest held by Goldman Sachs & Co., a wholly-owned direct subsidiary of GS Inc., acting as custodian for its customers. These shares are, or will be, registered in the name of Goldman Sachs Securities (Nominees) Limited. * The interest in 6,599,335 shares arose from a beneficial interest held by Goldman Sachs International, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of GS Inc., these shares are, or will be, registered at CREST in account CREPTEMP". They have increased their shareholding from 10,095,547 shares in Countrywideplc reported on 28th December 2005 to 11,940,958 shares. This equates to 6.73%of the total issued share capital of 177,434,369 shares.2. We have today received a further notice dated 17 January 2006 from anofficial of The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the extract of which is as follows:-"We hereby notify you that as at close of business on 13th January 2006, TheGoldman Sachs Group Inc ("GS Inc") of 85 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004, USA,was interested, by attribution only, in a total of 10,531,696 shares.Of these 10,531,696 shares: * The interest in 5,341,623 shares arose from the interest held by Goldman Sachs & Co., a wholly-owned direct subsidiary of GS Inc., acting as custodian for its customers. These shares are, or will be, registered in the name of Goldman Sachs Securities (Nominees) Limited. * The interest in 5,190,073 shares arose from a beneficial interest held by Goldman Sachs International, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of GS Inc., these shares are, or will be, registered at CREST in account CREPTEMP". They have decreased their shareholding from 11,904,958 shares in Countrywideplc reported above, to 10,531,696 shares. This equates to 5.94% of the totalissued share capital of 177,434,369 shares.Director/Company SecretaryCountrywide plcENDCOUNTRYWIDE PLCRelated Shares:
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