50,000-Ton Virgin Linerboard Expansion at Boise Mill in DeRidder, Louisiana, Complete

BOISE, Idaho, April 7, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Boise Inc. ("Boise") announced that its 50,000-ton linerboard expansion at its mill in DeRidder, Louisiana, was completed in March 2008, adding capacity and reducing fuel use at the DeRidder mill. Meanwhile, substantial cost increases are being experienced, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, at the Boise mills in Wallula and St. Helens.

Linerboard expansion at DeRidder

"We are pleased with the execution of this important project, which we expect will further enhance our competitive position in packaging markets," said Alexander Toeldte, President and Chief Executive Officer. "The expansion at DeRidder underscores our continued commitment to growing our packaging business and further improving our cost structure at what is already a low-cost facility."

In addition to increasing production capacity by 50,000 tons annually, the project is expected to result in reduced fuel consumption per unit of production at the mill. The company executed the project on budget and has estimated that the downtime, in combination with increased maintenance costs associated with the cold outage, negatively impacted income from operations and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) in the first quarter of 2008 by approximately $21 million.

Substantial cost increases

Fiber costs have increased sharply in the Pacific Northwest, substantially affecting costs at the Boise mills in Wallula and St. Helens. These substantial cost increases are driven largely by the reduction of residual chip supply as a result of solid wood manufacturer closures in response to the extended housing downturn as indicated in the company's post-merger call on February 29, 2008. These significant cost increases have risen further since then. This increase in fiber costs is now materially impacting the company, which is particularly sensitive to residual fiber availability and costs because of its dependence on residual fiber at its mills in Wallula and St. Helens, where it consumes approximately one million bone dry units of chips annually to support its operations.

The company also continues to be negatively impacted by significant cost increases in natural gas and chemicals, as indicated in the company's post-merger call on February 29, 2008. These costs continue to rise. Under normal operations, the company's mills are expected to directly consume approximately 14 million mmBTUs of natural gas in 2008. Higher energy costs have also impacted the costs of chemicals, transportation, and purchased electricity.

NYSE stock listing

As previously announced on February 8, 2008, Boise Inc., formerly known as Aldabra 2 Acquisition Corp., was authorized to list its common stock and common stock purchase warrants on the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE"), and its common stock and warrants have been trading under the ticker symbols BZ and BZ.WS, respectively, since February 25, 2008. The NYSE's listing requirements require that Boise disclose that additional information upon which the NYSE relied to list Boise, which is included in the Company's listing application, is available to the public upon request to Boise.

About Boise Inc.

Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, Boise Inc. NYSE: BZ manufactures a wide range of specialty and premium paper products, including papers for pressure sensitive and flexible packaging applications. Boise manufactures containerboard and corrugated products, imaging papers for the office and home, printing and converting papers, newsprint, and market pulp. Our entire team of more than 4,600 employees is committed to delivering excellent value while managing our businesses to sustain environmental resources for future generations. Visit our website at http://www.BoiseInc.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1994, which are based on management's expectations as of the date of this release. They are not guarantees of future performance. The linerboard expansion project, like any major project, involves risks, uncertainties, and estimates that are difficult to predict. Economic and financial factors, availability and cost of raw materials, the performance of the equipment, product mix, market demand, and other factors could cause the effectiveness of the project to differ materially from what we have predicted in this release. The cost of raw materials poses a significant risk to the company's financial performance. Changes in the cost of energy, fiber, chemicals, and other raw materials could cause our results of operations to differ from management's expectations on the date of this release. For more information about the factors that may affect Boise's performance, please refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, our periodic reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. We undertake no obligation to update the forward-looking statements in this release whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures

"EBITDA" represents income (loss) before interest (interest expense and interest income), income tax provision (benefit), and depreciation, amortization and depletion. EBITDA is the primary measure used by the Company's chief operating decision makers to evaluate segment operating performance and to decide how to allocate resources to segments. The Company's measures of EBITDA are not necessarily comparable to other similarly titled captions of other companies due to potential inconsistencies in the methods of calculation. The following table reconciles the estimated impact of income from operations to the estimated impact on EBITDA for the linerboard expansion:

    ($ Millions)                                   2008
    Estimated Impact on Income from Operations      $21
    Reconciling Adjustments to EBITDA                 0
    Estimated Impact on EBITDA                      $21