Business News

VERSO PAPER CORP. CLOSES INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING

Wednesday 21. May 2008 - Verso Paper Corp. (NYSE:VRS) today announced the closing of its initial public offering of 14,000,000 shares of common stock at a price of $12.00 per share.

Verso intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to repay a total of $153.3 million of debt and related prepayment fees. The debt to be repaid by Verso consists of the $4 million outstanding under the revolving credit facility and the $10 million outstanding under the senior secured term loan of Verso Fiber Farm LLC as well as $137.9 million of the $250 million outstanding under the senior unsecured term loan of Verso Paper Finance Holdings LLC and a related $1.4 million prepayment fee.

Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. acted as joint bookrunning managers for the offering, and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., Lehman Brothers Inc., Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated and Utendahl Capital Partners, L.P. acted as co-managers.

A registration statement relating to the offering was filed with and declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The offering is being made solely by means of a prospectus.