Ex-CU To Buy Back Stock To FundManagement Plan

ALBANY, Ga. - (05/26/06) – The board of former creditunion Heritage Financial Group has approved a buy back of 220,328of the company’s shares valued at $2.9 million which it plansto give to top management under its Equity Incentive Plan, thecredit union-convert announced Thursday. Less than a year aftergoing public in an IPO, the company, known until 2001 as AGE FCU,said it plans to buy those 220,328 shares back from thepublic–representing 6.5% of the public float–and grantthem to top management. Heritage Financial is a holding company forHeritageBank, a $365-million savings bank. Heritage, MHC, themutual holding company, holds 70% of the shares of HeritageFinancial Group. The remaining 30% of Heritage Financial Group'sshares are held by public stockholders following the company's June2005 initial public offering. At its annual meeting last month thecompany approved an Equity Incentive Plan of as many as 771,149shares.