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"Future Bright for F.N.B. Corp., CEO Tells Shareholders"
"GREENVILLE, Pa. -- F.N.B. Corp. (NYSE: FNB), a financial services company with $4.6 billion in assets, Wednesday held its first annual meeting in Pennsylvania since 1999, making it a point to hold it in the town where it was founded in 1864.The meeting itself was routine, the election or re election of directors and announcement of a 23-cent quarterly dividend payable June 15 to shareholders of record June 1.What was not routine was that F.N.B., having spun off its Florida operations effective Jan. 1, celebrated the return of its headquarters to Hermitage, Pa. As for its dividend, Stephen J. Gurgovits, president and chief executive officer, reminded shareholders, F.N.B. has increased its dividend 30 straight years, a remarkable feat considering only 284 of 11,400 publicly held entities in the United States have increased their dividend payments the past 10 consecutive years, he said.F.N.B. is aiming to have 2004 earnings per share lie between $1.26 and $1.32 with a payout of 92 cents, Gurgovits said."F.N.B. continues to deliver a dividend yield that places the corporation in the top handful of companies in our peer group," the CEO commented. "We remain firmly on track to deliver the moderate growth, good earnings, high value and excellent returns we predicted in January." The markets F.N.B. serves through First National Bank of Pennsylvania, First National Trust Co., First National Investment Services Co., F.N.B. Financial Advisors Inc. and First National Insurance Co., plus its consumer finance subsidiaries including Regency Finance have prospects for average economic growth at best. Hence Gurgovits said, "We expect to get some organic growth."As for other growth through merger and acquisition, Gurgovits said F.N.B. is looking at banks, insurance companies and consumer finance companies "within its footprint" that encompasses Pennsylvania, Ohio and Tennessee.F.N.B.'s stellar performance last year, the CEO reported, ranks it second among the 44 banks of comparable size in its peer group, with a dividend payout of nearly 5%. Over the past three years, 2001, 2002 and 2003, the corporation outperformed all market indices, rising 95% in value with an earnings-per-share increase of 37% and cash dividends increasing 33%.This encompasses the performance of the entity F.N.B. spun off as a tax-free dividend, First National Bankshares of Florida.Re-elected to three-year terms as directors were William B. Campbell, a retired F.N.B. executive, Gurgovits, Harry F. Radliffe, investment manager and director of Hawthorne Financial Corp., and John W. Rose, president of McAllen Capital Partners Inc.Robert B. Goldstein, chairman of the board of Bay View Capital Corp., was elected to a two-year term and attorney Henry M. Ekker of the firm Ekker, Kuster, McConnell & Epstein, was elected to a one-year term as director.In wake of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, F.N.B. shareholders no longer vote for the outside auditor. Instead, the audit committee, composed entirely of outside directors, hire the outside auditing firm, in this case, Ernst & Young.The proxy statement reported that for 2003, F.N.B. paid Ernst & Young $646,519 for audit services, $1.13 million for audit-related services, nearly $2 million for tax services and $1,500 for other. In 2002, Ernst & Young was paid $625,701 for audit services, $561,818 for audit related services and $321,944 for tax services. "