Hancock Timber Resource Group to Acquire 117,230 Acres

BOSTON, October 23, 2001 - Boston-based Hancock Timber Resource Group (HTRG) has agreed to acquire 117,230 acres of timberland from Bowater Incorporated (NYSE: BOW) for $110 million.

The properties include 113,130 acres of fee ownership and 4,100 acres in four long-term leases.

The transaction, which includes 96,129 acres in central South Carolina and 21,101 acres in west central North Carolina, is expected to close before year-end.

The announcement comes 12 weeks after an affiliate of HTRG agreed to acquire 134,862 acres in Australia from PaperlinX (ASX:PPX) for $77.2 million.

"This acquisition supports our overall strategy of value-added timberland investment in the South," said Bill Coleman, president and chief executive officer of the Hancock Natural Resource Group (HNRG), of which HTRG is a division. "We intend to manage the properties intensively for greater long-term benefit to investors."

HNRG is an indirect subsidiary of John Hancock Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE:JHF). HTRG oversees a portfolio of 1.7 million timberland acres in 11 southern states ranging from East Texas to Virginia. Also included in the properties HTRG or its affiliates manage on behalf of clients are: 572,000 acres in the Northeast, 152,750 acres in the Pacific Northwest, 60,000 acres in British Columbia, Canada, and 546,000 acres in Victoria, Australia.

The Bowater acquisition includes properties in 17 South Carolina counties north and west of Columbia, and 10 counties in North Carolina north and west of Charlotte. About 87 percent of the properties are pine sites.

HTRG is the world's leading timberland investment management organization for institutional investors, with $2.6 billion and 3 million acres under management by HTRG or its affiliates.