Hancock Timber Resource Group Completes 79,000-Acre Acquisition in Louisiana

BOSTON, March 31, 2004 -- Hancock Timber Resource Group (HTRG) announced today that it has purchased approximately 79,000 acres of timberland located in western Louisiana for approximately $84 million from Boise Cascade Corporation. The timberland is located in several parcels between Lake Charles and Shreveport.

Hancock Timber Resource Group manages approximately 1.5 million acres of timberland in the Southern United States. It is the world's largest timberland investment management organization for institutional investors, with approximately $2.8 billion and more than 2.8 million acres under management in North America and Australia as of December 31, 2003.

HTRG is a division of Hancock Natural Resource Group, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of John Hancock Financial Services. John Hancock Financial Services, Inc., and its affiliated companies, including John Hancock Life Insurance Company, provide a broad array of insurance and investment products and services to retail and institutional customers. As of December 31, 2003, John Hancock and its subsidiaries had total assets under management of $142.5 billion.