Steel Partners Nominates 8 Highly Qualified Director Candidates for Election to Aderans Board at 2009 Annual Meeting

Business Wire, March 25, 2009

TOKYO -- Steel Partners Japan Strategic Fund (Offshore), L.P. (“Steel Partners”) announced today that it has nominated a slate of 8 highly qualified director nominees for election to the Board of Directors of Aderans Holdings Co., Ltd. (TSE Code: 8170) (“Aderans” or the “Company”) at the Company’s Annual General Meeting of Shareholders scheduled to be held in May 2009.

Steel Partners detailed its nominations in a shareholder proposal (the “Proposal”) presented to Kiyoshi Hayakawa, President and Representative Director of Aderans.

In the Proposal, Steel Partners said the fresh perspective that its nominees would bring to Aderans is needed to accelerate a recovery in the Company’s corporate value.

“We are proposing to nominate for election eight directors to the Company’s Board of Directors who we believe are qualified and prepared to respond to changing market conditions with the urgency that is necessary for the Company to stave off further decline, to stabilize and then to grow, which a majority of current directors have been unwilling to do,” Steel Partners stated in the Proposal. “Each of our nominees has significant investment or management experience and a record of excellence in executing business operations.”

Steel Partners noted that Aderans' operating performance has continued the decline that was set in motion several years ago by its current management. Aderans' operating income and operating margins have substantially decreased as its direct competitors strategically and financially outperform the Company. In addition, the Company continues to retain a significant percentage of its consolidated assets that do not contribute to its hair replacement business and have resulted in significant losses.

Steel Partners’ nominees include Nobuo Watabe, a former senior executive of the Company, until his retirement in 2006, and current President and Representative Director Kiyoshi Hayakawa. Steel Partners said that Mr. Hayakawa’s short tenure as President does not lend itself to a fair evaluation of his ability or willingness to help the Company out of its current fiscal decline.

Steel Partners director nominees are:

[Table Omitted]

(Notes)

[Table Omitted]

Steel Partners has been an investor in Aderans since 2004 and is the largest shareholder of the Company, owning 11,155,000 shares, or approximately 26.7% of the Company’s outstanding shares.

About Steel Partners

Steel Partners Japan Strategic Fund (Offshore), L.P. is a long-term relationship/active value investor that seeks to work with the management of its portfolio companies to increase corporate value for all stakeholders and shareholders.