FSR - FirstRand - Issue And Listing Of Additional Ordinary Shares

FSR - FirstRand - Issue And Listing Of Additional Ordinary Shares               
FirstRand Limited                                                               
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)                                  
Registration number: 1966/010753/06                                             
JSE Share Code:  FSR     NSX Share Code: FSR                                    
ISIN:  ZAE000066304                                                             
("FirstRand" or the "Company")                                                  
ISSUE AND LISTING OF ADDITIONAL ORDINARY SHARES                                 
Rand Merchant Bank Corporate Finance is authorised to announce that FirstRand   
has issued a further 111 471 ordinary shares as a result of the final conversion
of preference shares under the FirstRand Outperformance Share Incentive Scheme  
(the "Outperformance scheme" or the "Scheme").    The JSE Limited ("JSE") has   
granted a listing of the 111 471 additional ordinary shares in the capital of   
FirstRand with effect from Tuesday 2 December 2008.                             
These new FirstRand ordinary shares arise from the conversion of redeemable,    
convertible preference shares previously issued by the Company to selected staff
members under the Outperformance scheme.    Under the Scheme, incentive shares  
accrue to participants in terms of a formula based on the level of out-         
performance achieved by the FirstRand ordinary share price relative to the Fini 
15 Index.  This index forms part of the "FTSE-JSE Africa Index Series"          
administered by the JSE and is composed of the fifteen largest listed financial 
services organisations in South Africa.   As such, the index reflects the share 
price performance of FirstRand`s peer group.                                    
This issue is the last in terms of the Scheme which was started in October 2002 
and is now ended.                                                               
Financial Impact                                                                
Assuming that the additional ordinary shares had been in issue for the full year
ended 30 June 2008 (FirstRand`s latest financial reporting period) the impact of
the conversion may be extrapolated as follows:                                  
                                     Beforee  After  % Change                   
Headline earnings per share - basic   191.5    191.5  0%                        
(cents)                                                                         
Net asset value per share (cents)     8.64     8.64   0%                        
Sandton                                                                         
3 December 2008                                                                 
Merchant bank and sponsor                                                       
RAND MERCHANT BANK (A division of FirstRand Bank Limited)                       
Date: 03/12/2008 08:15:01 Supplied by www.sharenet.co.za                     
Produced by the JSE SENS Department.                  
The SENS service is an information dissemination service administered by the    
JSE Limited (`JSE`). The JSE does not, whether expressly, tacitly or            
implicitly, represent, warrant or in any way guarantee the truth, accuracy or   
completeness of the information published on SENS. The JSE, their officers,     
employees and agents accept no liability for (or in respect of) any direct,     
indirect, incidental or consequential loss or damage of any kind or nature,     
howsoever arising, from the use of SENS or the use of, or reliance on,          
information disseminated through SENS.