worth a punt?, page-4

capital return Henderson Group (the Group) announces today that it has concluded its review of a
potential strategic acquisition opportunity. It has decided not to pursue the acquisition
further.
The Group Board (the Board) assessed the potential acquisition on a range of criteria.
These included strategic fit, earnings and value accretion and execution risk. Whilst
the Board concluded that the potential combination had strategic merit, it became
clear that the acquisition terms that the Board would have considered attractive and
been prepared to recommend to shareholders, were not acceptable to the sellers.
The Group will now continue with its plans to return surplus capital of approximately
£200 million to shareholders in 2006, and will update the market in due course on the
timing and method of this planned capital return.