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.
