EL DORADO, Ark. (From news reports) -- Potlatch is buying Deltic Timber Corp. in a stock deal, creating a company with nearly 2 million acres of woodlands in the South and Pacific Northwest.

Washington-based Potlatch and Arkansas-based Deltic Timber said Monday PotlatchDeltic Corp. would be valued at more than $4 billion, including $700 million in net debt. The combined company will have 1,500 employees.

The companies said their boards had already approved a deal, which now goes before shareholders. Deltic shareholders will receive 1.8 common shares of Potlatch for each share held. Current Potlatch shareholders would own two-thirds of the company when the transaction closes in the first half of 2018.

Potlatch Corp. has timberland in Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Minnesota and Mississippi. Deltic operates primarily in Arkansas and Louisiana.

****

Jim Thompson is back again...with a new book on a taboo subject: the personalities in the pulp & paper industry. Jim has written in the past on many subjects based on his four plus decades in the worldwide pulp and paper industry. This new book is packed full of information valuable to the senior member of the industry as well as the recent entrant. A must for every pulp and paper library.