AVA Avista Corp

Board Authorizes Preferred Stock Dividend SPOKANE, Wash., Aug. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Avista Corp.'s (NYSE:AVA) board of directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.145 per share on the company's common stock. A quarterly dividend of $1.73750 per share was declared on all outstanding shares of preferred stock Series K. The common and preferred stock dividends are payable Sept. 15, 2006, to shareholders of record at the close of business on Aug. 31, 2006. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040128/SFW031LOGO ) "This is the fifth dividend increase authorized by the board in the past three years, and it is an important indicator to our shareholders of the progress we are making in restoring our financial health," said Gary G. Ely, Avista Corp.'s chairman of the board and chief executive officer. "Even with this increase, we continue to reinvest the majority of our shareholder earnings in the infrastructure and operation of the company to the benefit of our customers." The common stock dividend represents a 4 percent increase over the last dividend of $0.14 per share declared in May 2006. This will result in an indicated annual dividend of $0.58 per share. Payment of dividends is subject to declaration and approval by the board each quarter. Avista Corp. is an energy company involved in the production, transmission and distribution of energy as well as other energy-related businesses. Avista Utilities is a company operating division that provides service to 339,000 electric and 298,000 natural gas customers in three western states. Avista's non-regulated subsidiaries include Advantage IQ and Avista Energy. Avista Corp.'s stock is traded under the ticker symbol "AVA." For more information about Avista, please visit http://www.avistacorp.com/ . NOTE: Avista Corp. and the Avista Corp. logo are trademarks of Avista Corporation. http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040128/SFW031LOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Avista Corp. CONTACT: media, Jessie Wuerst, +1-509-495-8578, or , or investors, Jason Lang, +1-509-495-2930, or , or Avista 24/7 Media Access, +1-509-495-4174 Web site: http://www.avistacorp.com/

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