Addressing shareholders, Delaney says OGE is well positioned for continued dividend growth

OKLAHOMA CITY, May 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE: OGE) Chairman and CEO Pete Delaney today told shareholders gathered for the company's annual meeting that 2014 was another successful year. Consolidated earnings were up to $1.98 compared to $1.94 in 2013, and cash distributions from Enable Midstream, LP, were $144 million in 2014. In addition, OG&E received a consecutive win in J.D. Power and Associates' Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study℠.

"We remain on sound financial footing and are well positioned to deliver on a 10 percent annual dividend growth rate through 2019," Delaney said. "That, coupled with our financial guidance at the utility of 3 – 5 percent earnings growth for the next five years, will create a return to shareholders that we believe will put us in first quartile among our industry peers."

Delaney also thanked OGE members for their dedication and commitment to customer satisfaction, which led to the second consecutive J.D. Power award.

At OG&E, growth in the customer base increased last year by almost 8,000 customers and the utility now serves approximately 818,000 customers. And, Delaney added, despite the precipitous drop in oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids prices, along with about 8 percent job losses in the oilfield sector, Oklahoma's economy appears to be on sound footing with an unemployment rate below 4 percent – one of the lowest in the nation.

Prior to the close of the meeting, Delaney announced his plan to retire from OGE Energy in the first quarter of 2016, citing the shareholders' approval of company President Sean Trauschke's nomination to the board as a critical step in his long-held succession plan for the company.

In voting announced at the annual meeting, OGE Energy shareholders:

• Elected 10 members of the company's board of directors to one-year terms:
  • James H. Brandi, former managing director of BNP Paribas Securities Corp., UBS Securities, LLC and Dillon, Read & Co Inc., was re-elected. He has been a director of OGE Energy and OG&E 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 and OG&E since December 1996.
  • Peter B. Delaney, current chairman and CEO of OGE Energy Corp.
  • John D. Groendyke, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Groendyke Transport Inc., was re-elected. He has been a director of OGE Energy and OG&E since January 2003.
  • Kirk Humphreys, chairman and manager of The Humphreys Company LLC, was re-elected. He has been a director of OGE Energy and of OG&E since November 2007.
  • Robert Kelley, president of Kellco Investments Inc., was re-elected. He has been a director of OGE Energy and OG&E since December 1996.
  • Robert O. Lorenz, retired partner of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, was re-elected. He has been a director of OGE Energy and OG&E since July 2005.
  • Judy R. McReynolds, president and chief executive officer of ArcBest Corporation, was re-elected. She has been a director of OGE Energy and of OG&E since July 2011.
  • Sheila G. Talton, president and CEO of Gray Matter Analytics, was re-elected. She has been a director of OGE Energy and OG&E since September 2013;
  • Sean Trauschke, current president of OGE Energy Corp. and OG&E.
• Ratified the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's principal independent accountants for 2015;
• Approved, on an advisory basis, the compensation paid to named executive officers;
• Approved a shareholder proposal request for the company to take actions in the future to eliminate  the supermajority voting provisions in its certificate of incorporation and adopt simple majority for certain shareholder voting;  and
• Rejected by a large margin a shareowner proposal that the company prepare and publish a report by September 2015 on greenhouse gas emission reductions above and beyond compliance, for 40 percent and 80 percent reductions by 2030 and 2050, respectively.

Also today, the Board declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.25 per common share of stock, to be paid July 30, 2015, to shareholders of record on July 10, 2015. The dividend was unchanged from the previous quarter.

OGE Energy is the parent company of Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company, a regulated electric utility serving approximately 818,000 customers in Oklahoma and western Arkansas.  In addition, OGE holds a 26.3 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; prices and availability of electricity, coal, natural gas and natural gas liquids, each on a stand-alone basis and in relation to each other as well as the processing contract mix between percent-of-liquids, percent-of-proceeds, keep-whole and fixed-fee; business conditions in the energy and natural gas midstream industries; competitive factors including the extent and timing of the entry of additional competition in the markets served by the Company; unusual weather; availability and prices of raw materials for current and future construction projects; 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 and regulations that may impact the Company's operations; 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; advances in technology; creditworthiness of suppliers, customers and other contractual parties; the higher degree of risk associated with the Company's nonregulated business compared with the Company's regulated utility business; and other risk factors listed in the reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission including those listed in Risk Factors and Exhibit 99.01 to the Company's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014.

SOURCE OGE Energy Corp.

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