coming for general electric ges dividend reinvestment plan beginning with the july 1977 dividend payment general electric will offer its share owners the ge dividend reinvestment plan as a convenient and economical way of making regular purchases of gen eral electric stock participation is entirely optional share owners will also be given the option of supplementing the reinvestment of their dividends by making additional cash payments volume purchases of stock for all participants will make the plan a more economical way to acquire ge stock than individual purchases general electric will administer the plan and the first national bank of boston as agent will pur chase the general electric stock acquired under the plan and hold it for the participants a booklet explaining the plan and setting forth the terms and conditions will be distributed to share owners at the end of april and will be accompanied by an authorization form by which share owners can enroll in the plan here are highlights of the ge plan to be initiated with the july 1977 dividend payment who may participate the plan is open to all general electric share owners who have ge stock registered in their own names and whose address of record is in the united states or its territories or possessions if your ge stock is registered in a name other than your own for example that of a broker bank or trustee this registered holder may be able to handle the reinvestment of your ge dividends if the registered holder cannot accommodate you some or all of your shares can be re-registered in your own name and you may then participate in the plan directly a choice of ways to participate the plan will be quite flexible in the ii and investment programs share ownei terest of making it adaptable will have three options : individual financial site automatic reinvestment of total declared dividends each quarter in additional ge stock once you have enrolled for dividend reinvestment general electric will automatically send your divi dends less service charge to the bank instead of to you for as long as you participate in the plan the bank as your agent will promptly apply your dividends pooled with those of other participants to the purchase of ge stock at current market prices and your shares will be credited to your dividend reinvestment plan account the shares that accumulate in your account will of course pay dividends too and these will also be reinvested automatically your dividends will seldom add up to the exact amount for purchasing one or more full shares as a result the stock purchased for you will nearly always include a fractional share proportionately these fractional shares will earn dividend income for you just as full shares do after each quarterly reinvestment of your dividends you will receive a detailed current statement of your plan account for convenience and safekeeping the bank will hold the stock it has purchased for your account but if at any time you wish to have full shares sent to you you may simply write to general electric you may invest more than your total dividends either regularly each quarter or less often by making additional payments of cash these payments will be entirely optional and can be in any amount from a minimum of 50 to a maximum of 3000 per quarter you can vary these additional cash payments from quarter to quarter or omit them at will an optional cash payment that you make in any quarter will simply be combined by ge with your dividends for that quarter and sent to the bank optional cash payments can begin only after your first dividend has been reinvested for example if your first dividend is reinvested in july your first optional cash payment can be made in october other details relating to the timing of cash payments are included in the booklet that will be sent to share owners in view of the considerable length of time it takes for reinvested dividends on a small number of shares to equal one full share the optional cash payment feature may be of particular interest to share owners with smaller holdings