“We are standing on the doorstep of some of America’s largestenergy-consuming markets: Boston, New York City, Chicago,Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco and Los Angeles. We believe therewill be about a half-dozen national energy providers. SouthernCompany intends to be one of those companies.”

Southern Company CEO Bill Dahlberg told 1,000 people at thecompany’s annual meeting the landscape of the future energybusiness will be dominated by a few companies “who get theirstrategies right.” By purchasing and operating generating assetsthat total more than 12,000 megawatts in New England, California,the Midwest and Texas and complement its position as a major traderand marketer of power and natural gas, Southern Company ispositioning itself to be a leading energy provider in the UnitedStates, he said.

Southern Company said it plans to increase its earnings pershare growth from a range of 5-6% to 6-8% off its base of earningsin 2000.

“In April, we sent a very clear signal to the market when weannounced plans to purchase up to 50 million of our own shares overthe next two years. We believe our strategies will result in thebest shareholder return available, and we could no longer ignorethe terrific value our shares represent.”

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