FT. SMITH, Ark., May 18, 2017
/PRNewswire/ -- OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE: OGE) today held its
annual meeting of shareholders outside of Oklahoma City for the first time in its
115-year history.
In his comments to shareholders, Trauschke dedicated OGE
Energy's 2016 performance to the enthusiasm and resiliency of the
company's employees, whose performance in 2016, he said, was as
strong as he could recall.
"Our members adapt to and overcome the challenges before them
and stand steadfast in their commitment to providing our customers
with highly reliable service, quality customer experiences,
environmental stewardship and an inspiring community spirit," he
said.
The OGE Energy board of directors also declared a third quarter
dividend of $0.3025 per common share
of stock, to be paid July 28, 2017,
to shareholders of record July 10,
2017. The dividend was unchanged from the previous quarter.
In September 2016, the company
increased its dividend from $1.10 per
share to $1.21 per share, marking the
third consecutive year the dividend was increased 10 percent. This
year marks the 70th consecutive year OGE has paid
dividends to shareholders.
In voting announced at the annual meeting, OGE Energy
shareholders:
- Elected nine members of the company's board of directors to
one-year terms:
-
- Frank A. Bozich,
president and chief executive officer at the SI Group, Inc., was
re-elected. He has been a director of OGE Energy since February 2016.
- James H. Brandi, former
managing director of BNP Paribas Securities Corp., was re-elected.
He has been a director of OGE Energy since February 2010.
- Luke R. Corbett, former
chairman and chief executive officer of Kerr-McGee, was re-elected.
He has been a director of OGE Energy since December 1996.
- David L. Hauser, former
chairman and chief executive officer of FairPoint Communications
Inc., was re-elected. He has been a director of OGE Energy since
July 2015.
- Kirk Humphreys, chairman
and manager of The Humphreys Company LLC, was re-elected. He has
been a director of OGE Energy since November
2007.
- Robert O. Lorenz, retired
partner of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, was re-elected. He
has been a director of OGE Energy since July
2005.
- Judy R. McReynolds,
chairman, president and chief executive officer of ArcBest
Corporation, was re-elected. She has been a director of OGE Energy
since July 2011.
- Sheila G. Talton,
president and chief executive officer of Gray Matter Analytics, was
re-elected. She has been a director of OGE Energy since
September 2013.
- Sean Trauschke, current
chairman, president and chief executive officer of OGE Energy Corp.
and OG&E, was re-elected. He has been a director of OGE Energy
since May 2015.
- Ratified the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the
company's principal independent accountants for 2017;
- Approved, on an advisory basis, the compensation paid to named
executive officers;
- Approved, on an advisory basis, a voting frequency of every
year (annually) on the compensation paid to named executive
officers.
OGE Energy is the parent company of Oklahoma Gas and Electric
Company, a regulated electric utility serving approximately 836,000
customers in Oklahoma and western
Arkansas. In addition, OGE holds a
25.7 percent limited partner interest and a 50 percent general
partner interest of Enable Midstream Partners, LP.
Some of the matters discussed in this news release may contain
forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks,
uncertainties and assumptions. Such forward-looking
statements are intended to be identified in this document by the
words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend",
"objective", "plan", "possible", "potential", "project" and similar
expressions. Actual results may vary materially. Factors
that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but
are not limited to: general economic conditions, including the
availability of credit, access to existing lines of credit, access
to the commercial paper markets, actions of rating agencies and
their impact on capital expenditures; the ability of the Company
and its subsidiaries to access the capital markets and obtain
financing on favorable terms as well as inflation rates and
monetary fluctuations; the ability to obtain timely and sufficient
rate relief to allow for recovery of items such as capital
expenditures, fuel costs, operating costs, transmission costs and
deferred expenditures; prices and availability of electricity,
coal, natural gas and NGLs; the timing and extent of changes in
commodity prices, particularly natural gas and NGLs, the
competitive effects of the available pipeline capacity in the
regions Enable serves, and the effects of geographic and seasonal
commodity price differentials, including the effects of these
circumstances on re-contracting available capacity on Enable's
interstate pipelines; the timing and extent of changes in the
supply of natural gas, particularly supplies available for
gathering by Enable's gathering and processing business and
transporting by Enable's interstate pipelines, including the impact
of natural gas and NGLs prices on the level of drilling and
production activities in the regions Enable serves; business
conditions in the energy and natural gas midstream industries,
including the demand for natural gas, NGLs, crude oil and midstream
services; competitive factors including the extent and timing of
the entry of additional competition in the markets served by the
Company; the impact on demand for our services resulting from
cost-competitive advances in technology, such as distributed
electricity generation and customer energy efficiency programs;
technological developments, changing markets and other factors that
result in competitive disadvantages and create the potential for
impairment of existing assets; factors affecting utility operations
such as unusual weather conditions; catastrophic weather-related
damage; unscheduled generation outages, unusual maintenance or
repairs; unanticipated changes to fossil fuel, natural gas or coal
supply costs or availability due to higher demand, shortages,
transportation problems or other developments; environmental
incidents; or electric transmission or gas pipeline system
constraints; availability and prices of raw materials for current
and future construction projects; the effect of retroactive pricing
of transactions in the SPP markets or adjustments in market pricing
mechanisms by the SPP; Federal or state legislation and regulatory
decisions and initiatives that affect cost and investment recovery,
have an impact on rate structures or affect the speed and degree to
which competition enters the Company's markets; environmental laws,
safety laws or other regulations that may impact the cost of
operations or restrict or change the way the Company operates its
facilities; changes in accounting standards, rules or guidelines;
the discontinuance of accounting principles for certain types of
rate-regulated activities; the cost of protecting assets against,
or damage due to, terrorism or cyber attacks and other catastrophic
events; creditworthiness of suppliers, customers and other
contractual parties; social attitudes regarding the utility,
natural gas and power industries; identification of suitable
investment opportunities to enhance shareholder returns and achieve
long-term financial objectives through business acquisitions and
divestitures; increased pension and healthcare costs; costs and
other effects of legal and administrative proceedings, settlements,
investigations, claims and matters; difficulty in making accurate
assumptions and projections regarding future revenues and costs
associated with the Company's equity investment in Enable that the
Company does not control; and other risk factors listed in the
reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange
Commission including those listed in Risk Factors in the Company's
Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016.
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SOURCE OGE Energy Corp.