Conister stake increase and Issue of Equity

    For immediate release: 0700hrs 9th September 2008

                       Equity Special Situations Limited                       

                           ("ESS" or the "Company")                            

            Increases stake in Conister Financial Group PLC ("CFG")            

                                      and                                      

                                Issue of Equity                                

Equity Special Situations Limited, (AIM:EQS.L) the strategic investment
company, is pleased to announce that it has agreed to increase its holding in
Conister Financial Group PLC (AIM:CFG.L), the AIM traded private bank and
financial services group, to 19.99%.

Since ESS's initial investment in CFG in June of this year it has become clear
that, as expected, there are potentially significant synergies between CFG's
and ESS's existing investment portfolio of companies and the board of ESS
believe that a further investment in CFG will be of considerable benefit to
both companies.

ESS is acquiring 7,101,798 new CFG ordinary shares at a price of 73p per share
("the Investment"), through the issue to CFG of 2,206,090 new ESS ordinary
shares at 235p per share ("Consideration Shares"), valuing the Investment at
approximately £5.2 million. Following completion of the Investment, ESS's
holding in CFG will be 12,676,948 ordinary shares, including the strategic
stake in CFG that ESS announced that it had agreed to acquire in June 2008.
CFG's holding in ESS will increase to 4,248,795 ordinary shares, representing
18.6% of ESS's enlarged issued share capital.

Application for the Consideration Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM has
been made and it is expected that the Consideration Shares will begin trading
on AIM on 12 September 2008. The Consideration Shares will rank pari passu with
the existing ordinary shares in issue. Following the issue of the Consideration
Shares, the Company will have a total of 22,839,476 ordinary shares in issue.

About Equity Special Situations Ltd

Equity Special Situations is a Guernsey registered investment company that was
admitted to AIM in August 2004. Its investment strategy is to purchase and hold
significant stakes in companies and investment funds and then to assist
management in company growth. Its current focus is on the EU financial services
sector. Significant holdings include Syndicate Asset Management plc, STM Group
plc, Noble Investments plc and Avarae Global Coins plc. For further information
on the Company, please go to www.equityspecialsituations.com.

Further information:

Equity Special Situations Ltd

Peter Griffin [phone]

Jonathan Freeman [phone]

Evolution Securities Limited

Jeremy Ellis [phone]

Chris Clarke [phone]

GTH Communications

Toby Hall/Christian Pickel [phone]



END