Hancock Timber Resource Group Closes Large Timberland Transaction and Announces New CalPERS Contract

BOSTON, February 11, 2000 - The Hancock Timber Resource Group (HTRG) yesterday acquired 402,000 acres of prime Alabama timberland from U.S. Alliance Coosa Pines (Alliance) for $303 million, completing a preliminary transaction announced October 13.

HTRG President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Coleman said the property will be managed on behalf of eight U.S. pension fund investors as well as several from Australia. "These Alabama timberlands are among the finest in the world," Coleman said. "It is appropriate that the investor group itself brings an international perspective to the table." Investors include US funds like the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and Australia's Hastings Fund Management Ltd.

As a means of improving the return from their southern and northeastern timberland portfolio, CalPERS invested $70 million in this acquisition through a reallocation of existing timberland assets.

Coleman also said HTRG established a new operating company, Cahaba Forest Management, Inc. (CFM), to manage the timberlands, which are located in 16 counties south and east of Birmingham. Staffed for the most part with veteran Alliance foresters, CFM is based in Childersburg, Ala.

In an unrelated development, Coleman said HTRG and CalPERS have entered into a new, 12-year timberland investment management contract. Under the contract, HTRG will continue to manage $842 million of CalPERS' timberland assets in the U.S. Southeast and Northeast. The two organizations have worked together on timberland investing since 1985.

HTRG is the world's leading timberland investment manager for institutions, with $2.9 billion and 3.1 million acres under management in North America and Australia.

Boston-based HTRG is a wholly owned subsidiary of John Hancock Financial Services (NYSE:JHF), one of America's leading financial service companies, providing a broad array of insurance and investment products and services to retail and institutional customers. As of September 30, John Hancock and its subsidiaries had total assets under management of $123.4 billion. US Alliance Coosa Pines is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alliance Forest Products Inc. of Montreal (NYSE:PFA) (ME, TSE: ALP).