ATLANTA – Southern Company, once again, was ranked one of the “Best Companies in North America” by Global Finance magazine, topping the list for the energy services/electricity sector.

The basis for the selections includes both objective and subjective criteria including revenue and profitability growth, market capitalization growth, social responsibility, percentage of revenues and employees outside the home country, technology or product breakthroughs, mergers and acquisitions success, crisis control and aggressiveness in market building.

Global Finance editors make the selections after gathering input from industry analysts, corporate reports and other expert sources. Southern Company has been ranked the best in its industry for several of the eight years that Global Finance has been issuing the list.

“We are honored to be recognized again by Global Finance magazine as the best in our industry,” said Southern Company Chairman, President and CEO David Ratcliffe. “This recognition is a direct result of the outstanding work of our employees, their total commitment to superior performance and the responsible way we conduct business.”

“The list of winners in North America in 2005 is almost identical to 2004. This demonstrates that corporate quality is not a passing attribute but often an integral part of a company’s organizational DNA,” said Global Finance publisher Joseph Giarraputo.

Giarraputo and members of the Global Finance editorial board will present the winning companies with awards at a ceremony in November in New York.

With more than 4 million customers and nearly 39,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier super-regional energy company in the Southeast and a leading U.S. producer of electricity. Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states, a growing competitive generation company and a competitive retail natural gas business, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are 15 percent below the national average. Southern Company has been ranked the nation’s top energy utility in the American Customer Satisfaction Index six years in a row. Southern Company has more than 500,000 shareholders, making its common stock one of the most widely held in the United States. Visit the Southern Company Web site at www.southerncompany.com.

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