Hancock Timber Resource Group Finalizes Purchase of Snoqualmie Tree Farm

BOSTON, May 15, 2003 -- Hancock Timber Resource Group finalized their purchase of the Snoqualmie Tree Farm from the Weyerhaeuser Company today. This tentative purchase was originally announced March 10, 2003.

The Snoqualmie Tree Farm consists of 104,000 acres and is located in Washington state, east of Seattle. The purchase price was $185 million. With this acquisition, Hancock Timber will manage approximately 420,000 acres of timberland in the Northwest, including approximately 230,000 acres in Washington state.

"Obtaining the Snoqualmie Tree Farm is a unique investment management opportunity for our investors," said Hancock Timber President and COO Dan Christensen. "This is an exceptional forest with a great management history that will operate well with our commitment to sound environmental stewardship."

Hancock Timber Resource Group is the world's largest timberland investment management organization for institutional investors with 3.2 million acres and $3 billion in assets under management in North America and Australia.

Boston-based Hancock Timber is a division of Hancock Natural Resource Group, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of John Hancock Financial Services (NYSE:JHF). John Hancock Financial Services, Inc., is a leading financial services company, providing a broad array of insurance and investment products and services to retail and institutional customers. As of March 31, 2003, Hancock and its subsidiaries had total assets under management of $130.4 billion.