DATE: Friday, April 18, 1997                TAG: 9704180654

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   32 lines

SHIPYARD SETS FIRST ANNUAL MEETING

Newport News Shipbuilding has scheduled its first annual meeting since its spinoff from Tenneco Inc. in December.

The meeting will be at 10 a.m. May 16 at the Omni Newport News Hotel.

Shareholders will be asked to elect three directors to three-year terms, including William P. Fricks, the shipyard's chairman and chief executive; Dr. William A. Harvey, Hampton University's president; and Stephen R. Wilson, Reader's Digest Inc.'s chief financial officer.

The proxy statement announcing the meeting showed that Fricks earned $670,878 in salary, bonus and other compensation.

Fricks owns or has options to buy 88,455 shares of the shipyard's stock.

Shipyard shareholders will also be asked to approve increasing the number of shares available in an employee stock ownership plan by 1.25 million to more than 3 million shares. The plan, an incentive program for shipyard officers and key employees, has already awarded 2.1 million shares through options and other types of awards.

They will also vote on increasing the shares available in an employee stock purchase plan by 400,000 to 1.1 million. This program is designed to encourage all employees to buy stock in the yard by offering it at a lower price than the market.

The proxy also showed that Newport News Shipbuilding's largest shareholder is FMR Corp., parent of the Fidelity family of mutual funds. Fidelity funds hold 11.9 percent of the stock. FMR is followed by Massachusetts Financial Services Co. with 9.8 percent and Oppenheimer Group Inc. with 7 percent.

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