BOSTON, July 30, 2001 - Hancock Victorian Plantations Pty Ltd (HVP) today announced it had agreed to acquire all the shares of Australian Paper Plantations Pty Ltd (APP) from PaperlinX (ASX:PPX) for $77.2 million.

The transaction, expected to close August 31, subject to regulatory approvals, represents all of PaperlinX's plantation assets in the Gippsland region of the state of Victoria, Australia.

The property includes 134,862 acres of pine and eucalypt plantations, and was the second largest privately owned timber plantation in Australia.

Bill Coleman, president and Chief Executive Officer of Boston-based Hancock Natural Resource Group, Inc. (HNRG), said "This acquisition is strategic for HVP and brings synergies to our organizations and economies of scale to our operations. It extends our global presence and adds a greater measure of diversification to our clients' portfolios."

The Hancock Timber Resource Group (HTRG), a unit of HNRG, oversees the operations of HVP, which is owned jointly by U.S. and Australian institutional investors. "This is our 53rd transaction," Coleman said. "Of 52 prior transactions, when a purchase and sale agreement was signed, we closed all of them for a combined total of $2.8 billion."

The purchase of PaperlinX's plantations consolidates HVP's Gippsland operations and its position as Australia's largest private plantation owner, with 545,862 acres under management.