ComEd 2003 Annual Report Download - page 5

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 5 of the 2003 ComEd annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 138

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97
  • 98
  • 99
  • 100
  • 101
  • 102
  • 103
  • 104
  • 105
  • 106
  • 107
  • 108
  • 109
  • 110
  • 111
  • 112
  • 113
  • 114
  • 115
  • 116
  • 117
  • 118
  • 119
  • 120
  • 121
  • 122
  • 123
  • 124
  • 125
  • 126
  • 127
  • 128
  • 129
  • 130
  • 131
  • 132
  • 133
  • 134
  • 135
  • 136
  • 137
  • 138

3
to our shareholders
2003 marked my sixth year at Exelon,and my 20th year as a
CEO in the electric utility industry. Much has changed since
I was given the opportunity to lead Central Maine Power
Company back in 1984.The industry has gone through pro-
found regulatory and financial turmoil, beginning with PURPA
(Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act) and integrated resource
management,progressing through wholesale and retail
competition, the California energy crisis,the Enron debacle, the
telecom and merchant generation bubbles,the collapse of
wholesale energy trading and, most recently the August 14,
2003 blackout. By any measure, these have been challenging
times for our industry and its investors. I am proud to say that
the companies that I have led have adapted to these changes,
improved service and increased shareholder value.
Despite all this turmoil,even chaos, recent experience only
confirms that this is a business about real service, with
real assets and real customers.The old-fashioned virtues of
reliability, safety, integrity,operating know-how and cost
containment are even more important today than when
I first joined Central Maine, or even back when the first Edison
companies were created.
At Exelon, we have done well because we have adapted to the
dramatic changes around us,and more fundamentally because
we have never lost sight of the basics. Consistent with our
corporate Vision Statement, which we first introduced in 2002
and discussed at length in these pages last year, we have
challenged ourselves to live up to our reliability and safety
commitments while relentlessly pursuing greater productivity,
quality and innovation.We seek to build exceptional value
by becoming the best and most consistently profitable elec-
tricity and gas company in the United States.We do not claim
to have achieved this goal; we will not waiver in this effort.
succeeding in challenging times
2003 has been a year of significant operating accomplish-
ments, and painful investment write-offs.I am delighted
to report that 2003 adjusted (non-GAAP) operating earnings
were $5.22 per share, eight percent above 2002 adjusted
(non-GAAP) operating earnings.* As a result,on January 27,
2004, the Exelon Board of Directors approved a further 10
percent increase in the quarterly dividend rate,from 50 cents
per share to 55 cents per share.
All told,we have increased our dividend rate by 20 percent over
the past 12 months,and by 30 percent since Exelon was created.
The Board also approved a 2-for-1 stock split contingent upon
required regulatory approvals and the filing of an amendment
to our articles of incorporation.Both the increased dividend
level and the proposed stock split should make our shares
more attractive to retail investors.
* For a reconciliation of adjusted (non-GAAP) operating earnings to GAAP (accounting
principles generally accepted in the United States) earnings, see Exelon’s fourth quarter
earnings release, issued January 28, 2004, posted on the Investor Relations page at
www.exeloncorp.com and included in the 8-K filed with the SEC on that date.