ATLANTA, Ga. -- Southern Company today announced the appointment of Allen Franklin as president and chief operating officer. Franklin, 54, who currently serves as executive vice president of Southern Company and as president and chief executive officer of Georgia Power Company—Southern Company’s largest subsidiary—will report to chairman and CEO A. W. “Bill” Dahlberg. “As our markets have continued to expand and change rapidly, there was an increasing need for strengthening the leadership team at Southern Company,” said Dahlberg. “Allen Franklin’s knowledge of our business and his leadership on the critical issues facing our industry make him an excellent choice for this new position, designed to help lead Southern Company through a complex and changing environment.”

Franklin will become the first chief operating officer in the company’s history and will have responsibility for Southern Company’s five Southeastern U.S. operating companies -- Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric – as well as Southern Company Generation, which includes operation of the company’s regulated fossil and hydro generation. Southern Nuclear will report administratively to Franklin for coordination with other system companies and system-wide activities.

Southern Energy, the subsidiary responsible for energy supply operations in other regions of North America and in international markets, will continue to report directly to Dahlberg. Southern Company Services, the engineering and special services arm of Southern Company, will report jointly to Franklin and Dahlberg.

Franklin has served as president and CEO of Georgia Power since 1994. He joined Southern Company Services in 1970 as an engineer and gained experience in several engineering and management positions at SCS and Alabama Power before being named senior vice president of Alabama Power in 1981. He returned to SCS in 1983 as executive vice president and was named president and CEO of that subsidiary in 1988. Dahlberg also announced that David M. Ratcliffe was elected by the Georgia Power board of directors to succeed Franklin as president and chief executive officer of Georgia Power. Ratcliffe, 50, is currently executive vice president and chief financial officer of Georgia Power. He was also elected an executive vice president of Southern Company.

“David brings a broad base of experience and excellent leadership to his new role,” said Dahlberg, “and he will do an outstanding job in running the company where he began his career 28 years ago.”

Ratcliffe joined Georgia Power in 1971 and held a variety of positions before being named an executive vice president at Southern Company Services in 1989. He was named president and chief executive officer of Mississippi Power in 1991 and became Southern Company’s senior vice president of external affairs in 1995, a position he held until he was named to his current job at Georgia Power in 1998. Both Franklin and Ratcliffe will assume their new positions -- and the new organizational structure becomes effective -- June 1, 1999.

In other action today, Southern Company’s board also elected Thomas G. Boren as executive vice president of Southern Company. Boren will continue to serve as president and chief executive officer of Southern Energy.

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is an international energy company with $36 billion in assets through regional utilities and operations around the world. It is the largest producer of electricity in the United States and one of the world’s leading independent power producers. Based in Atlanta, Southern Company is the parent firm of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric. Through its Southern Energy Inc. subsidiary, Southern Company supplies electricity in 10 countries on four continents and has a growing presence in North America with assets in the Northeast, the Midwest, California and Texas. Southern Company also provides energy-related marketing, trading and technical services and offers Southern LINC wireless telecommunications.