WHIreland Regulatory News (WHI)

WH Ireland Group Plc

Appointment of New Heads of Institutional Sales/Trading and Corporate Finance

WH Ireland Group plc (AIM:WHI), the financial services group, is delighted to announce two senior appointments to lead its Institutional Sales/Trading and Corporate Finance operations. Both will be joining in the week commencing 12 April 2010.

Russell Hooper joins as Head of Institutional Sales/Trading and will be responsible for coordinating the Group's institutional stockbroking business. Previously, Russell has been Head of European Institutional Client Sales Trading and also Head of Pan European Hedge Fund Sales Trading at Merrill Lynch where he spent 15 years in the Institutional Equities division. He graduated in Materials Engineering from Cardiff University. His interests include cricket, rugby (Welsh) and cycling.

Chris Fielding joins as Head of Corporate Finance, bringing with him over 20 years' experience in corporate finance as a small/mid cap specialist. Since 2005, Chris has worked at Arden Partners, having previously spent eleven years at Hoare Govett, where he was a director of Corporate Finance. He qualified as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse. Chris will be based in the Group's London office and will lead the continued expansion of the corporate finance business. Chris' interests and hobbies include rugby (English), skiing, classic cars, travel and walking.

The WH Ireland team already has significant depth of experience and strong regional coverage through John Wakefield (Bristol), Dan Bate (Manchester), James Joyce (London) and their respective teams, supported by the Group's award-winning research team, based in Leeds, headed by Matthew Davis. In line with the Group's strategy, these appointments will further enhance WH Ireland's institutional sales and corporate finance offering.

Commenting on the appointments, Richard Ford (CEO) said:

"We are delighted to have secured the services of two top calibre individuals both of whom bring substantial skill and experience to the firm. These appointments come at a time when we are seeing a significant uplift in client demand for our corporate stockbroking services where we are looking to build our already strong position in the market. Russell and Chris will continue to drive our business forward and complement our existing Securities business both in London and through our principal regional offices in Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Bristol."

John Wakefield commented:

"The two appointments continue the work already in place to address the aspirations of our corporate client base to gain wider access to sources of capital and to benefit from best of breed advice in our core small/mid cap market."

Matthew Davis (Head of Institutional Research) said of the appointments:

"Both Chris and Russell bring significant experience, further enhancing WH Ireland's distribution capability, both corporately and institutionally."

30 March 2010

Enquiries:

WH Ireland Tel: 020 7220 1666

Richard Ford

Biddicks (Financial PR to WH Ireland) Tel: 020 7448 1000

Zoe Biddick