Aqua America Nominated for National Growth Award
BRYN MAWR, Pa., Sep 15, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Aqua America, Inc. (NYSE:WTR) Chairman Nicholas DeBenedictis will accept the nomination of Aqua America by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) for the organization's national Global Award for Emerging Company this afternoon at ACG's 2005 M&A East Conference, which is taking place today at the Philadelphia Convention Center.
The Global Award for Emerging Company recognizes companies (with less than $500M in annual revenue) that have demonstrated sustained growth and financial performance. Each local ACG Chapter nominates one "local" company for the award.
Aqua America has experienced tremendous growth since the early 1990s, quadrupling its customer base and expanding its market cap from $200 million to more than $3 billion today. Additionally, the company, which has paid dividends for 60 consecutive years, recently announced it will increase its dividend for the fifteenth time in 14 years, and split its stock for the sixth time in nine years, on December 1, 2005.
"We are very proud to have been nominated for such a prestigious award," said DeBenedictis. "Upon joining the company in 1992, it was obvious that it had great potential. I often referred to it then as 'the little engine that could' with the support of a strong and experienced management team and a dedicated workforce, I'm proud to say that we've made Aqua America the crown jewel of the domestic private water industry."
Aqua America, Inc. is the largest U.S.-based publicly-traded water utility, serving more than 2.5 million residents in Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Indiana, Virginia, Maine, Missouri, New York, and South Carolina. Aqua America is listed on both the New York and Philadelphia Stock Exchanges under the ticker symbol WTR.
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SOURCE: Aqua America, Inc.
Aqua America, Inc. Donna Alston, 610-645-1095 dpalston@aquaamerica.com
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