Columbia Bancorp Pre-Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2007 Earnings Guidance

Columbia Bancorp Pre-Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2007 Earnings
Guidance

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.
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.
SOURCE Columbia Bancorp

Roger L. Christensen, President and CEO, +1-541-298-6633,
rchristensen@columbiabancorp.com, or Greg B. Spear, Vice Chair and CFO,
+1-541/298-6612, gspear@columbiabancorp.com, both of Columbia Bancorp