Hancock Timber Resource Group to Speak at Institutional Investment Management Conference in Cambridge

BOSTON, April 30, 2003 -- Hancock Timber Resource Group (HTRG) will give a presentation at the upcoming "Investment Management for Institutional Investors" conference in Cambridge on Thursday, May 15, 2003 at the Hyatt Regency. Clark S. Binkley, managing director and chief investment officer of HTRG, will be a featured speaker.

Presented by New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business, the conference is designed to help educate potential investors through a variety of workshops. Mr. Binkley's talk will discuss timberland investing fundamentals including its risk and return attributes and how timberland compares to other asset classes.

HTRG is the world's largest timberland investment management organization for institutional clients, with more than $2.7 billion under management as of March 31, 2003. HTRG is a division of Hancock Natural Resource Group, Inc., a subsidiary of John Hancock Financial Services, Inc.

For more information, please call 919-541-2008.