NEWS RELEASE
                                        Florida Progress Corporation
                                        One Progress Plaza 
                                        St. Petersburg, Florida 33701
                                        Contact: Karen Raihill - (813) 866-5023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Florida Progress Corporation increases annual dividend rate

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (November 17, 1994) -- The board of directors of Florida
Progress Corporation today declared a quarterly cash dividend of 50 1/2 cents
per share on the company's outstanding common stock.  The board's action
increases the annual dividend rate by 4 cents per share, raising the annual
dividend to $2.02 a share.  This represents a dividend growth rate of 2
percent.

Based on the current business plan and outlook for earnings growth, the board
concluded that it could increase the dividend to shareholders while, at the
same time, lowering the dividend payout ratio.

"In the future, the need to evaluate our operations in a changing business
environment will become increasingly important in determining dividend policy,"
said Jeffrey R. Heinicka, the company's senior vice president and chief
financial officer.  "For that reason, our board has changed the timing of
future annual dividend policy reviews to February so that it better follows the
schedule of our corporate planning process."

Changing the timing of the reviews will allow the board to examine all of the
latest planning information, including the company's five-year financial
forecast, which is finalized in December.  Also available to the board at
future reviews would be prior-year operating results.  The next dividend policy
review by the board is scheduled 15 months from now, in February 1996.

The new dividend of 50 1/2 cents per share is payable on December 20, 1994 to
shareholders of record at the close of business on December 5, 1994.

Florida Progress (NYSE: FPC) is a diversified utility holding company with
assets of more than $5.7 billion.  Its principal subsidiary is Florida Power
Corporation, the state's second-largest electric utility with more than 1.2
million customers.  Diversified operations include coal mining and
transportation, life insurance, real estate, and lending and leasing.