NewPage Sells Niagara Hydroelectric Facility To Northbrook Wisconsin, LLC

Chicago, Illinois, and Miamisburg, Ohio, USA, 24 March 2009 – Northbrook Wisconsin, LLC and NewPage Corporation announced today the completion of the sale of the NewPage Little Quinnesec hydroelectric facility in Niagara, Wisconsin, to Northbrook Wisconsin, LLC. The facility has the capacity to generate approximately 9.1 megawatts annually. The terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.

Northbrook Wisconsin, LLC is an affiliate of United States Power Fund III, L.P., a private equity fund managed by Energy Investors Funds (EIF), and Northbrook Energy, LLC. Sanabe & Associates, LLC, acted as financial advisor to NewPage in the transaction.

EIF was founded in 1987 as the first private equity fund manager dedicated exclusively to the independent power and electric utility industry. EIF has mobilized over USD 3.4 billion in capital raised in seven funds, and currently manages four private equity funds from its offices in Boston, New York, and San Francisco. These funds have made over 100 diversified investments with a combined underlying asset value exceeding USD 7 billion. EIF controls 4000 MW of operating power assets and another 2200 MW of power assets under development or construction.

Northbrook Energy, LLC, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, is a privately held company involved in the development, ownership and operation of electric power facilities. The company specializes in indentifying and acquiring performing and distressed assets via private equity and project financing, and has transacted with a wide variety of counterparties, including paper companies, electric utilities, and governmental entities. Northbrook has particular expertise in enhancing the value of hydroelectric power facilities.

Headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio, NewPage Corporation is the largest coated paper manufacturer in North America, based on production capacity, with USD 4.4 billion in net sales for the year ended 31 December 2008. The company’s product portfolio includes coated freesheet, coated groundwood, supercalendered, newsprint, and specialty papers. NewPage owns paper mills in Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin in the USA, and in Nova Scotia, Canada. These mills have a total annual production capacity of approximately 4.4 million tons of paper, including approximately 3.2 million tons of coated paper, approximately 1.0 million tons of uncoated paper, and approximately 200,000 tons of specialty paper.