8 December 2004

Admiral sails into the FTSE 250
Wins Best European small/mid-cap IPO deal of the year

Admiral Group plc ("Admiral") is delighted to announce that it has been included in the FTSE 250 index following the quarterly review of the UK Index Series, as announced by FTSE today.

Admiral was ranked 189th largest FTSE company, according to the FTSE ground rules, which give a 40% weighting to the Company's total market capitalisation of £829.4m (at market close on 7 December 2004), based on its free float of 37.4%.

All announced index changes will be effective on Monday, 20 December 2004, as announced by FTSE today.

Admiral also recently won a prestigious Financial News for Excellence Award, as "Best European small/mid-cap IPO Deal of the Year", announced by Financial News on 1 December.

Henry Engelhardt, CEO, said: "We are very proud to be joining the FTSE 250 in the first review of the index since our flotation in September. It means that we are officially classified among the larger medium-sized companies, giving us a stronger profile with investors.

"Winning the 'Best European small/mid-cap IPO Deal of the Year' award last week, after having won 'Business of the Year' in the National Business Awards earlier in November simply puts the icing on the cake of what has been an extremely eventful year for Admiral. We want to thank and congratulate everyone for contributing to these great achievements."

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Notes to editors:

Admiral is a fast growing financial services intermediary with a track record of profitability. Admiral principally sells private motor insurance and ancillary products, such as cover for breakdown, roadside assistance and legal expenses. Admiral markets directly to the public in the UK through its four core brands: Admiral, elephant.co.uk, Diamond, and Bell Direct.

Admiral is listed on the London Stock Exchange and trades under the ticker symbol ADM.L. At the close of business on 8 December 2004, Admiral had a market capitalization of £822.33 million.

The FTSE 250 comprises mid-capitalised companies that constitute the largest 250 companies in the UK outside of the FTSE 100, representing approximately 18% of UK market capitalisation. FTSE indices are used extensively by investors world-wide for investment analysis, performance measurement, asset allocation, portfolio hedging and for creating a wide range of index tracking funds. Independent committees of senior fund managers, derivatives experts, actuaries and other experienced practitioners review all changes to the indices to ensure that they are made objectively and without bias. Real-time FTSE indices are calculated on systems managed by Reuters. Prices and FX rates used are supplied by Reuters. (Source: FTSE, wwww.ftse.com)