DALLAS, May 18 -- Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB) today announced it has agreed to sell its Southeast Timberland marine operation and export chip and pole businesses to Cooper Marine & Timberlands Corporation, a subsidiary of Cooper/T. Smith Corporation. With this purchase, Cooper/T. Smith will make another investment in its Forest Products Division.

As previously announced, Kimberly-Clark is selling its Southeast Timberlands and related operations due to the planned closure of the company's Mobile, Ala., pulp mill in September 1999. The marine operation, which includes 19 tugboats and 120 barges, supplies two million tons of wood to the company's Mobile pulp mill, exports more than a million tons of hardwood chips and sells more than 60,000 tons of poles domestically and internationally each year. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory clearances, is expected to close in June. The sale price was not disclosed.

The company has entered into a supply agreement with Cooper to purchase hardwood chips, bark and barge transportation services until the closure of the Mobile pulp mill. In addition, Cooper will offer positions to 100 of Kimberly-Clark's Southeast Timberland employees.

Kimberly-Clark said the sale of its other Southeast Timberland operations, including 529,000 acres of woodlands in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, is under way. The company recently sold a 14,000-acre tract of land in Clark County in Alabama and is in negotiations to sell an additional 60,000 acres of hardwood timberlands. Kimberly-Clark expects to sell the remainder of its woodlands this year and is in the process of accepting bids on more than 115,000 acres primarily in Choctaw, Conecuh and Monroe counties in Alabama.

Most of the employees associated with the marine operation are based in Mobile, with the majority of the 400 remaining Southeast Timberland employees located in a number of rural communities in central and southern Alabama and in Mississippi. Kimberly-Clark said it has offered early retirement to more than 50 of the remaining employees and will provide an enhanced severance package and financial and outplacement counseling to employees who do not receive job offers from buyers.

Cooper/T. Smith Corporation, headquartered in Mobile, has been in the maritime business for more than 100 years. Its subsidiaries provide services throughout the United States and in five other countries.

Kimberly-Clark Corporation is a leading global manufacturer of tissue, personal care and health care products. The company's global brands include Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex, Depend, Kleenex, Scott, Kimberly-Clark, Tecnol, Kimwipes and WypAll. Other brands well known outside the U.S. include Andrex, Scottex, Page, Popee and Kimbies. Kimberly-Clark also is a major producer of premium business, correspondence and technical papers. The company has manufacturing operations in 38 countries and sells its products in more than 150 countries.