Pointing out that PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) has more than quadrupled its value in the past decade, the company’s chairman told shareowners Wednesday (5/21) that he is very optimistic about the future.
“Your company has grown to be the ninth largest investor-owned electricity company in the United States, and we are continuing to create a wide range of opportunities to enable sustained growth over the long term,” said James H. Miller, chairman, president and chief executive officer, during the company’s annual meeting at a Lehigh Valley, Pa., conference center.
“In the past 10 years, we have increased the value of your company by 400 percent, growing from a market capitalization of $3.6 billion to about $18 billion today, and we have increased earnings per share, exclusive of special items, by 160 percent,” said Miller. “If you had invested $100 in PPL stock on May 15, 1998, and reinvested all the dividends you received in that time, your investment would be worth $635 today.”
Miller highlighted other important measures of success as well:
- More than a dozen customer service awards for excellence in its Pennsylvania electricity delivery company, the most of any United States electric company.
- The company’s U.K. electricity delivery company is the only utility company ever to earn the Charter Mark award – the U.K.’s gold standard for customer service. It has held that honor since 1992, when the award was started.
- Recognition by Forbes® magazine as the best-managed U.S. electricity company in 2007.
- Being named one of the 100 most socially responsible companies in the United States by a national business ethics magazine.
- Having two of our renewable energy projects honored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“Over the past decade, we have proven – over and over again – that the people of PPL are capable of providing extraordinary returns to our shareowners and providing best-in-class service to our customers,” said Miller.
Miller said he is optimistic about PPL’s future because the people of PPL are energized by the challenges and opportunities that are part of today’s electricity business.
“We have been successful not because we have a magic formula that is known only to us. We’ve been successful because PPL people outperform the competition,” he said. “The essence of our remarkable performance over the past decade – and the promise for the future – is our unwavering, pervasive focus on executing the business plans that we have put in place.”
Shareowners re-elected three directors to three-year terms: Frederick M. Bernthal, president, Universities Research Association; Louise K. Goeser, president and chief executive officer, Ford of Mexico; and Keith H. Williamson, senior vice president, secretary and general counsel of Centene Corporation.
Continuing to serve on the board are (current term expiration in parentheses): John W. Conway, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Crown Holdings, Inc. (2009); E. Allen Deaver, retired executive vice president and director of Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (2009); Stuart Heydt, retired chief executive officer of the Geisinger Health System (2010); Miller (2009); Craig A. Rogerson, president and chief executive officer of Hercules Incorporated (2010); W. Keith Smith, retired vice chairman of Mellon Financial Corporation and senior vice chairman of Mellon Bank, N.A. (2010); and Susan M. Stalnecker, vice president and treasurer of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (2009).
Shareowners also approved a company proposal to amend and restate the company’s articles of incorporation to eliminate all supermajority voting requirements. The company’s board of directors, following votes by shareowners at PPL’s 2006 and 2007 annual meetings to eliminate supermajority provisions, reviewed the advantages and disadvantages of such provisions and recommended the elimination of them.
During the meeting, shareowners also ratified the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company’s independent auditing firm for the year ending Dec. 31, 2008.
PPL Corporation, headquartered in Allentown, Pa., controls more than 11,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to about 4 million customers in Pennsylvania and the United Kingdom.
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