Directors of Southern Company, the nation’s largest producer of electricity, today raised the quarterly dividend on the company`s common stock one penny to 33½ cents a share. The dividend is payable March 6, 1998, to shareholders of record Feb. 2, 1998.

The dividend increase is the company`s seventh in as many years. The new quarterly dividend equals an annual rate of $1.34 per share. This marks the 201st consecutive quarter — dating back to 1948 — that Southern Company will have paid a dividend to its common shareholders.

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the parent firm of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric. Based in Atlanta, Southern Company supplies electricity in 10 countries on four continents and provides energy-related marketing, trading and technical services and wireless telecommunications. Southern Company’s common stock is one of the 20 most widely held corporate stocks in America.