[COMPANY LOGO] CONTACT: Roger L. Christensen, President and CEO
541/298-6633 or christensen@columbiabancorp.com
Greg B. Spear, Vice Chair and CFO
541/298-6612 or gspear@columbiabancorp.com
Columbia Bancorp Pre-Announces Fourth Quarter and
Fiscal Year 2007 EarningsGuidance
THE DALLES, Oregon, Jan. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Columbia Bancorp
(Nasdaq: CBBO), is the financial holding company for Columbia River Bank. Roger
Christensen, Columbia Bancorp President and CEO announced, "Given the volatility
in the banking sector in combination with recent news from northwest banks, we
believe it is potentially helpful to our investors that we release early
earnings guidance, and we are proud to announce that we will exceed analysts'
published expectations for our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2007."
The most recent published analysts' average earnings projection for
Columbia Bancorp's diluted earnings per share is $0.35 for the fourth quarter
2007 and $1.36 for the year-ended 2007, as reported on http://www.bloomberg.com.
Columbia expects diluted earnings per share will range between $0.39 and $0.41
for fourth quarter 2007 and $1.40 to $1.42 for the year-ended 2007, as compared
to fourth quarter 2006 diluted earnings per share of $0.41 and year-ended 2006
of $1.55.
Credit quality remains within the guidance management provided during the
third quarter press release and webcast. This is a result of our diversified
markets, past underwriting practices and experienced lending staff. The
estimated non-performing assets (NPAs) at year-end 2007 should fall between a
range of 0.98% and 1.03% as a percent of total assets, compared to 0.88% at the
end of the third quarter. Columbia believes the loss potential for all NPAs, at
this time, is properly reserved based on the current underlying real estate and
other collateral values.
"Our management team is poised to lead Columbia and its shareholders
through what are likely to be some difficult and volatile times in our
industry," stated Christensen. "We recognize investors are concerned about
credit quality issues facing financial institutions (particularly community
banks) and we will continue to monitor our loan portfolio carefully during the
first quarter and beyond, maintaining our conservative view of the issues that
impact our risk profile."
Additional information and further clarity will be provided in Columbia's
complete earnings release and conference call scheduled for Wednesday, January
23, 2008.
Conference Call and Audio Webcast
Columbia Bancorp will hold its fourth quarter and year end conference call
and live webcast on Wednesday, January 23, 2008. The 2007 fourth quarter and
year-end earnings release will be distributed before the market opens that day.
Roger Christensen, President and Chief Executive Officer, along with the
executive management team, will host a conference call for investors, analysts
and other interested parties beginning at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time (3:00 p.m.
Eastern Time). To participate in the call, dial 1-877-407-9210. The live webcast
can also be heard by going to Columbia Bancorp's Web site,
http://www.columbiabancorp.com and selecting Presentations/Webcast under
Investor Relations.
A replay of the call will be available until January 30, 2008, starting
two hours after the completion of the live call. To listen to the replay, dial
1-877-660-6853, account #286 and use access code 266258. A text version of the
webcast will be archived on Columbia Bancorp's web site.
COLUMBIA BANCORP ANNOUNCES EARNING ESTIMATES
January 9, 2008
Page 2 of 2
ABOUT COLUMBIA BANCORP
Columbia Bancorp (http://www.columbiabancorp.com) is the financial holding
company for Columbia River Bank, which operates 22 branches located in The
Dalles (2), Hood River, Bend (3), Madras, Redmond (2), Pendleton, Hermiston,
McMinnville, Lake Oswego, Canby, and Newberg, Oregon, and in Goldendale, White
Salmon, Sunnyside, Yakima, Vancouver, Pasco and Richland, Washington. To
supplement its community banking services, Columbia River Bank also provides
mortgage-lending services through Columbia River Bank Mortgage Team and
brokerage services through CRB Financial Services Team.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains various forward-looking statements about plans
and anticipated results of operations and financial condition relating to
Columbia Bancorp. These statements include statements about management's present
plans and intentions about our strategy, growth, and deployment of resources,
and about management's expectations for future financial performance. Readers
can sometimes identify forward-looking statements by the use of prospective
language and context, including words like "may", "will", "should", "expect",
"anticipate", "estimate", "continue", "plans", "intends", or other similar
terminology. Because forward-looking statements are, in part, an attempt to
project future events and explain management's current plans, they are subject
to various risks and uncertainties which could cause our actions and our
financial and operational results to differ materially from those set forth in
such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our
ability to estimate accurately the collectibility of our loans, economic and
other factors which affect the collectibility of our loans, the impact of
competition and fluctuations in market interest rates on Columbia's revenues and
margins, management's ability to open and generate growth from new branches and
other risks and uncertainties that we have in the past, or that we may from time
to time in the future, detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission ("SEC"). Information presented in this release is accurate as of the
date the report was filed with the SEC, and we cannot undertake to update our
forward-looking statements or the factors that may cause us to deviate from
them, except as required by law.