AKRON, Ohio, Sept. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of
Directors of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) today declared an
unchanged quarterly dividend of 36
cents per share of outstanding common stock. The
dividend will be payable December 1,
2017, to shareholders of record at the close of business on
November 7, 2017.
FirstEnergy is dedicated to safety, reliability and operational
excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one
of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving
customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, West Virginia,
Maryland and New York. The
company's transmission subsidiaries operate more than 24,000 miles
of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic
regions. Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp or
online at www.firstenergycorp.com.
Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes
forward-looking statements based on information currently available
to management. Such statements are subject to certain risks and
uncertainties. These statements include declarations regarding
management's intents, beliefs and current expectations. These
statements typically contain, but are not limited to, the terms
"anticipate," "potential," "expect," "forecast," "target," "will,"
"intend," "believe," "project," "estimate," "plan" and similar
words. Forward-looking statements involve estimates, assumptions,
known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may
cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially
different from any future results, performance or achievements
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, which may
include the following: the ability to experience growth in the
Regulated Distribution and Regulated Transmission segments and the
effectiveness of our strategy to transition to a fully regulated
business profile; the accomplishment of our regulatory and
operational goals in connection with our transmission investment
plan, including, but not limited to, our planned transition to
forward-looking formula rates; changes in assumptions regarding
economic conditions within our territories, assessment of the
reliability of our transmission system, or the availability of
capital or other resources supporting identified transmission
investment opportunities; the ability to accomplish or realize
anticipated benefits from strategic and financial goals, including,
but not limited to, the ability to continue to reduce costs and to
successfully execute our financial plans designed to improve our
credit metrics and strengthen our balance sheet; success of
legislative and regulatory solutions for generation assets that
recognize their environmental or energy security benefits,
including the United States Department of Energy study; the risks
and uncertainties associated with the lack of viable alternative
strategies regarding the Competitive Energy Services (CES) segment,
thereby causing FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. (FES), and likely
FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC), to restructure its
debt and other financial obligations with its creditors or seek
protection under United States
bankruptcy laws and the losses, liabilities and claims arising from
such bankruptcy proceeding, including any obligations at
FirstEnergy Corp.; the risks and uncertainties at the CES segment,
including FES and its subsidiaries and FENOC, related to continued
depressed wholesale energy and capacity markets, and the viability
and/or success of strategic business alternatives, such as pending
and potential CES generating unit asset sales, the potential
conversion of the remaining generation fleet from competitive
operations to a regulated or regulated-like construct or the
potential need to deactivate additional generating units; the
substantial uncertainty as to FES' ability to continue as a going
concern and substantial risk that it may be necessary for FES, and
likely FENOC, to seek protection under United States bankruptcy laws; the risks and
uncertainties associated with litigation, arbitration, mediation
and like proceedings, including, but not limited to, any such
proceedings related to vendor commitments, such as long-term fuel
and transportation agreements; the uncertainties associated with
the deactivation of older regulated and competitive units,
including the impact on vendor commitments, such as long-term fuel
and transportation agreements, and as it relates to the reliability
of the transmission grid, the timing thereof; the impact of other
future changes to the operational status or availability of our
generating units and any capacity performance charges associated
with unit unavailability; changing energy, capacity and commodity
market prices including, but not limited to, coal, natural gas and
oil prices, and their availability and impact on margins; costs
being higher than anticipated and the success of our policies to
control costs and to mitigate low energy, capacity and market
prices; replacement power costs being higher than anticipated or
not fully hedged; our ability to improve electric commodity margins
and the impact of, among other factors, the increased cost of fuel
and fuel transportation on such margins; the uncertainty of the
timing and amounts of the capital expenditures that may arise in
connection with any litigation, including New Source Review
litigation, or potential regulatory initiatives or rulemakings
(including that such initiatives or rulemakings could result in our
decision to deactivate or idle certain generating units); changes
in customers' demand for power, including, but not limited to,
changes resulting from the implementation of state and federal
energy efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates; economic or
weather conditions affecting future sales and margins such as a
polar vortex or other significant weather events, and all
associated regulatory events or actions; changes in national and
regional economic conditions affecting us, our subsidiaries and/or
our major industrial and commercial customers, and other
counterparties with which we do business, including fuel suppliers;
the impact of labor disruptions by our unionized workforce; the
risks associated with cyber-attacks and other disruptions to our
information technology system that may compromise our generation,
transmission and/or distribution services and data security
breaches of sensitive data, intellectual property and proprietary
or personally identifiable information regarding our business,
employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, business partners
and other individuals in our data centers and on our networks; the
impact of the regulatory process and resulting outcomes on the
matters at the federal level and in the various states in which we
do business including, but not limited to, matters related to
rates; the impact of the federal regulatory process on Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)-regulated entities and
transactions, in particular FERC regulation of wholesale energy and
capacity markets, including PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (PJM)
markets and FERC-jurisdictional wholesale transactions; FERC
regulation of cost-of-service rates; and FERC's compliance and
enforcement activity, including compliance and enforcement activity
related to North American Electric Reliability Corporation's
mandatory reliability standards; the uncertainties of various cost
recovery and cost allocation issues resulting from American
Transmission Systems, Incorporated's realignment into PJM; the
ability to comply with applicable state and federal reliability
standards and energy efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates;
other legislative and regulatory changes, including the new federal
administration's required review and potential revision of
environmental requirements, including, but not limited to, the
effects of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's
Clean Power Plan, Coal Combustion Residuals regulations,
Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and Mercury and Air Toxics Standards
programs, including our estimated costs of compliance, Clean Water
Act (CWA) waste water effluent limitations for power plants, and
CWA 316(b) water intake regulation; adverse regulatory or legal
decisions and outcomes with respect to our nuclear operations
(including, but not limited to, the revocation or non-renewal of
necessary licenses, approvals or operating permits by the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission or as a result of the incident at
Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
Plant); issues arising from the indications of cracking in the
shield building at Davis-Besse; changing market conditions that
could affect the measurement of certain liabilities and the value
of assets held in our Nuclear Decommissioning Trusts, pension
trusts and other trust funds, and cause us and/or our subsidiaries
to make additional contributions sooner, or in amounts that are
larger than currently anticipated; the impact of changes to
significant accounting policies; the impact of any changes in tax
laws or regulations or adverse tax audit results or rulings; the
ability to access the public securities and other capital and
credit markets in accordance with our financial plans, the cost of
such capital and overall condition of the capital and credit
markets affecting us and our subsidiaries; further actions that may
be taken by credit rating agencies that could negatively affect us
and/or our subsidiaries' access to financing, increase the costs
thereof, increase requirements to post additional collateral to
support, or accelerate payments under outstanding commodity
positions, letters of credit and other financial guarantees, and
the impact of these events on the financial condition and liquidity
of FirstEnergy Corp. and/or its subsidiaries, specifically FES and
its subsidiaries; issues concerning the stability of domestic and
foreign financial institutions and counterparties with which we do
business; and the risks and other factors discussed from time to
time in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
filings, and other similar factors. Dividends declared from time to
time on FirstEnergy Corp.'s common stock during any period may in
the aggregate vary from prior periods due to circumstances
considered by FirstEnergy Corp.'s Board of Directors at the time of
the actual declarations. A security rating is not a recommendation
to buy or hold securities and is subject to revision or withdrawal
at any time by the assigning rating agency. Each rating should be
evaluated independently of any other rating. These forward-looking
statements are also qualified by, and should be read in conjunction
with the other cautionary statements and risks that are included in
our filings with the SEC, including but not limited to the most
recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and any subsequent Quarterly
Reports on Form 10-Q. The foregoing review of factors also should
not be construed as exhaustive. New factors emerge from time to
time, and it is not possible for management to predict all such
factors, nor assess the impact of any such factor on our business
or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may
cause results to differ materially from those contained in any
forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any current
intention to update, except as required by law, any forward-looking
statements contained herein as a result of new information, future
events or otherwise.
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SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.