Re Contract

RNS Number:5354P
Royalblue Group PLC
08 September 2003

royalblue announces additional $24 million fidessa contract with Merrill Lynch

royalblue announces that it has extended its agreement with Merrill Lynch,
allowing royalblue's fidessa product suite to be used by Merrill Lynch to
support its core US domestic trading activities.

Merrill Lynch already uses the fidessa product suite for trading equities in
Europe, Asia and the US and the deal provides support for market making in
NASDAQ listed securities. Under the deal Merrill Lynch will also extend their
commitment to the existing fidessa platform for a further 3 years. The new deal
is expected to be worth at least $24m over the next 3 years, of which $9.5m
reflects the investment in the new US domestic system.

This deal represents the culmination of discussions started in 2001 when Merrill
Lynch and royalblue agreed to work closely to explore the possibility of using
royalblue's fidessa product to provide software to support Merrill Lynch's US
market making requirements. At that time, in recognition of the strategic value
of the opportunity, royalblue agreed to grant Merrill Lynch certain options over
ordinary shares in royalblue conditional upon an agreement being concluded.
These options have lapsed. Due to the continued strategic importance of the deal
royalblue will grant Merrill Lynch three year options exercisable immediately
with an exercise price of 550p for 600,000 ordinary shares.



enquiries:
John Hamer, Chairman                         Edward Bridges, Financial Dynamics
Chris Aspinwall, Chief Executive             Ben Way, Financial Dynamics
Andy Malpass, Finance Director               Tel: [phone]
www.royalblue.com                            Fax: [phone]
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]


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