Merger Update

1 Jul 2005 15:00

Office of Fair Trading01 July 2005 Merger Clearance: The OFT has decided, on the information currently available to it, not to referthe following merger to the Competition Commission under the provisions of theEnterprise Act 2002: Anticipated acquisition by Pentland Group plc of The John David Group plc The text of this decision will be placed on the Office of Fair Trading's website at www.oft.gov.uk and will also appear in the Office's Weekly Gazette assoon as is reasonably practicable. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange