Feb 20, 2008. /Lesprom.com/. Hancock Timber has agreed to buy 900 thousand acres of forestland and related assets in the southern United States for $1.7 billion including debt, Reuters informed. IStar Financial Inc., a U.S.-based commercial real estate finance company, said that it and its partners will sell the TimberStar Southwest portfolio of timberland to an affiliate of Boston-based Hancock Timber Resource Group. Hancock Timber already manages more than 3.7 million acres of timberland worth about $7.4 billion in the Pacific Northwest and the Southeast United States as well as Brazil, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. The forest properties it has agreed to buy from iStar are in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. iStar expects to receive gross proceeds of about $425 million from the transaction, with its equity partners the balance, it said. The transaction is expected to close in the 2Q. Hancock Timber Resource Group is a timberland investment management organization.