M&I BOOSTS DIVIDEND 14.8%

By Michael Horne
The board of directors of the Marshall & Ilsley Corporation raised the firm's quarterly dividend four cents to $.31 per share this morning immediately prior to the bank holding company's annual meeting, continuing a trend that has brought comfort to its shareholders for decades.
Retiring CEO Dennis Kuester (he's still Chairman) delivered the news to an overflow crowd at the Pilot House of Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin to an appreciative, and largely white-maned crowd. Dividends at Wisconsin's largest bank had increased 111 per cent in the preceding five years. It was the 160th annual meeting of Marshall & Ilsley, or "M&I," as the nation's nineteenth largest bank is known on the streets. It was also the last meeting in which bank subsidiary Metavante Corporation would be a part of the M&I family. That firm, with its emphasis on back-office functions, will become a separate company later this year in a tax-free spinoff where investors will receive one third share of Metavante for each share of M&I owned.
Metavante, like most technology companies, is not expected to pay a dividend, Kuester announced. The orderly crowd took this news stoically, particularly when Kuester affirmed that the bank would maintain its pre-split dividend after the breakup. Metavante, Kuester's baby, had grown from $4 million in sales and 187 employees in 1976 to $1.5 billion in sales and 5,500 employees to date. Metavante's revenue growth has increased at a 21 per cent annual clip over the past five years, and contributed 20 per cent of M&I profit last year. M&I will find consolation in the loss of its cash cow in the form of $625 million it will receive from New York investment banker (we call them "private equity firms" now) Warburg Pincus, which is to purchase a 25 per cent stake in Metavante.

AND NOW, THE FUN STUFF
(after all, it is a meeting of bankers)

Those irascible fellows who are in senior positions at M&I (three of them are named Smith*), suprised Dennis Kuester, their retiring boss, with a tribute that was as full of whimsy as any ever seen at an annual meeting of a midwestern bank holding company, provoking the muffled laughter that filled the room. The antics were led by bank president and CEO Mark F. Furlong, [201.168 meters --Ed.] who had just picked up the CEO title that morning. Furlong showed photos of a very young Kuester, who grew up in Milwaukee and graduated from Custer High School. (That's easy to remember.) He likes to golf and has an 11 point handicap, which probably beats any other Custer High graduate who belongs to Milwaukee Country Club.
The retiring CEO owns a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which he purchased for twice its value at a charity auction. Kuester is not letting his wild side get the better of him, Furlong assured the group. "I haven't noticed any tattoos or odd piercings on Dennis," he said.
"Of course, I haven't been looking that hard."
--Michael Horne
*Gregory A. Smith, Michael C. Smith and Ronald E. Smith