Spokane-based Potlatch Corp. has entered into an agreement to merge with a smaller company, El Dorado, Ark.-based Deltic Timber Corp., says a press release from Potlatch.

The new company will be named PotlatchDeltic Corp. and will be based in Spokane. Its shares will trade under the ticker PCH on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Potlatch says.

Potlatch executives Mike Covey, chairman and CEO, and Eric Cremers, president and chief operating officer, will remain in those positions after the merger. John Enlow, president and CEO of Deltic, will become vice chairman of the new company. The board of directors for PotlatchDeltic will consist of eight directors from Potlatch and four from Deltic, Potlatch says.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of next year. It requires the approval of stockholders of both companies, Potlatch says.

The combined company will have more than 1,500 employees.

Factoring in recent stock prices and net debt for the two companies, PotlatchDeltic is projected to have a total enterprise value of more than $4 billion, according to the release.

Potlatch stockholders will own roughly 65 percent of the stock in PotlatchDeltic, and current Deltic stockholders will own the balance, the companies say.

The release says the combined timberland owner and lumber manufacturing company will own 2 million acres of land, of which 1.1 million acres are in the southern U.S., 600,000 acres are in Idaho, and 150,000 in Minnesota. 

The merged company also will own eight wood products manufacturing facilities consisting of six lumber manufacturing operations, one industrial plywood mill, and one fiberboard facility.

More than half of the company’s lumber will be produced at its three southern U.S. mills.

Potlatch Corp. is a real estate investment trust. 

The business currently has about 1.4 million acres of timberland in Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Minnesota, and Mississippi.