20th Apr 2005 13:38
20th April 2005Notification of Share InterestPursuant to Sections 198-203 of the Companies Act 1985We have received a notice dated 19th April 2005 from an official of FidelityInternational Limited (FIL) that it has an aggregate notifiable interest in25,142,326 Ordinary Shares of 5p each in Countrywide plc. On the basis of anissued share capital of 178,754,455 this represents 14.07% % of the Company'sshares in issue.FIL holds them for various direct and indirect subsidiaries, including FidelityInvestment Services Limited (FISL); Fidelity Gestion (FIGEST); FidelityInvestments Advisory (Korea) Limited (FIA[K]JL); Fidelity InvestmentsManagement (Hong Kong) Limited (FIMHK); Fidelity Pension Management (FPM) andFidelity Investments International (FII), investment managers for variousnon-US investment companies, institutions and clients. (See Schedule A forlisting of registered shareholders and their holdings).The notifiable interest also comprises the notifiable interest of Mr. Edward CJohnson 3d, a principal shareholder of FIL.These notifications of disclosable interests constitute separate notificationsof interest in the shares and are combined solely for the purposes of clarity.Nothing herein should be taken to indicate that Fidelity International Limitedand its direct and indirect subsidiaries or Mr. Edward C. Johnson 3d act as agroup or in concert in respect of the disclosed interests, or that they arerequired to submit these notifications on a joint basis.The disclosable interests arise under section 208(4)(b) of the Act, namelywhere a person, not being the registered holder, is entitled to exercise aright conferred by the holding of the shares or to control the exercise of suchrights, or under section 204 of the Act respectively.They have increased their holding from 23,652,581 shares reported on 6thDecember 2004 to 25,142,326 shares, which equates to 14.07% of the issued sharecapital.Company Secretary/DirectorCountrywide plcSchedule ASecurity: Countrywide plcOrdinary Shares Management Nominee/Registered Name Company Held 155,668 FII Bank of New York Europe LDN Total 972,824 FII JP Morgan, Bournemouth Total 587,826 FIL Brown Bros Harriman Ltd. Lux Total 73,955 FIL JP Morgan, Bournemouth Total 14,943,447 FISL JP Morgan, Bournemouth Total 5,799,612 FISL JP Morgan, Bournemouth Total 439,003 FPM Bank of New York Brussels Total 88,275 FPM Bank of New York Europe Ldn Total 143,350 FPM Citibank London Total 85,200 FPM Clydesdale Bank plc Total 123,400 FPM Mellon Bank Total 1,430,616 FPM Northern Trust London Total 299,150 FPM State Str Bank and TR Co Ldn (S Total) Total Ordinary Shares: 25,142,326Key:FISL = Fidelity Investment Services LimitedFPM = Fidelity Pension Management Investment Managers for various non-USinvestment companies and institutional clientsFIL = Fidelity International LimitedFII = Fidelity Investments InternationalENDCOUNTRYWIDE PLCRelated Shares:
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