Rakesh Malhotra moves from Ebony Retail

Company release, July 1, 2004

New Delhi

Rakesh Malhotra, Chief Operating Officer, has bid a fond farewell to Ebony Retail Holdings ltd after a tenure spanning more than 8 years and decided to move and start his own venture abroad as CEO and Director. He had been associated with Ebony for almost a decade and is instrumental in the company's growth. He was responsible in a number of ways for taking the company to a massive turnover of Rs. 82 crores from a relatively small beginning.

On this development, Mrs. Neeta Narula, Managing Director of Ebony stated "Mr. Malhotra has contributed to the company in many ways and has expertise in areas of corporate strategy, business development, project management, operations sales, and brand management. He has grown and risen with the company. He will be missed by all of us here."

"It has been most gratifying to associate with Ebony and help build one of Indias largest retail brand. Retail in this country stands on the anvil of a great boom and has tremendous potential and is poised for a massive take off. Im sure; Ebony will reap the fruits of the immense growth opportunities available in retail," said Mr Malhotra.

Mr. Rakesh Malhotra had been associated with the company since 1996, when he joined the DS Group as Chief Marketing Manager and soon was promoted to Deputy General Manager- Merchandising. The best, though, was yet to come in 2000, when he was again promoted to VP- Buying & Merchandising. Mr. Malhotra further grew through the rank to become COO and was responsible for overall planning for all Ebony Stores across the country. He was closely involved in managing Retail Services & Operations of Ebony and charting a development & expansion strategy for the Ebony Retail Holding Ltd.

Under his stewardship, Ebony has seen initiatives like the launch of ICICI Ebony co branded credit card and worked towards effective customer relationship management and efficient supply chain management and initiated strategic alliances on national level. He is also the part of various faculties and taught retail management courses at Fore school of management, National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, IIT Delhi etc.

Mr Malhotra led the business and marketing agenda in very complex and difficult environments and has been responsible for setting systems and processes of very high standards and in delivering outstanding creative output on the brand Ebony.

For further information, please contact:

Ms. Suneet Singh

Dy. Marketing Manager

Ebony Retail Holdings Ltd.

Ph: 26962057/ 26963401

Email: suneet@ebonyclick.com

Taposh Saha/ Vyjayanthi

Mutual PR

9818139076/ 9871425570

taposh@mutualpr.com/Vyjayanthi@mutualpr.com