Shareholders of PNC Financial Services Group shouldn't expect an increase in the dividend anytime soon, CEO James Rohr said Wednesday. Mr. Rohr, speaking at an investors' forum in San Francisco, said PNC would first want to see "some stabilization in the regulatory environment" before considering a hike in the dividend, which was slashed from 66 cents to 10 cents last March. "It's difficult to predict" when the board would be able to raise the dividend, he said. PNC and other big banks cut their dividends last year in a bid to save capital during the financial crisis.

PNC Financial Services Group said it was reverting back to its old pay structure for 2010 for CEO James Rohr and four other top executives after repaying bailout funds last month to the federal government. PNC and other banks that received money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program had been operating under executive pay restrictions that included the elimination of bonus awards and limits on long-term incentives. The restrictions were lifted once the bailout funds were returned. Last year, PNC's board raised Mr. Rohr's and other top executives' base salaries to compensate for the cuts in bonuses. For this year, old base salaries were restored, along with the executive incentive award program, PNC said in a government filing.

The West Penn Allegheny Health System has named Susan Manzi as system chair for the Department of Medicine and Joseph Ahearn as chief scientific officer for the Allegheny Singer Research Institute. The pair, co-founders and directors of the Lupus Center of Excellence at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, will bring that program to WPAHS when they take their new positions later this year, WPAHS officials say. In the newly created position of system chair, Dr. Manzi will oversee clinical, academic and scientific initiatives within the departments of medicine at Allegheny General Hospital, The Western Pennsylvania Hospital and the Western Pennsylvania Hospital-Forbes Regional Campus.

The Regional Industrial Development Corp. of Southwestern Pennsylvania was granted federal approval to expand its Foreign Trade Zone 33 sites from 5,000 acres in three counties to more than 6,500 acres in counties throughout the region. The Foreign Trade Zone program, which encourages partnerships between U.S. and foreign companies with tax breaks as one of the arrows in its quiver, was in part what was used to bring Volkswagon and then Sony to the same RIDC site in Westmoreland County.

The Pittsburgh region was seventh in Site Selection Magazine's list of Top 10 Metro Areas (with populations of more than 1 million) for new and expanded corporate facilities in 2009. Pittsburgh was also was behind New York City, Chicago, Dallas-Forth Worth, Detroit and Houston, but with the 83 projects that were counted in the Pittsburgh region, it beat out Philadelphia's 77. The state was fourth overall behind Ohio, Texas and Michigan.

Pittsburgh-based nutritional supplements retailer General Nutrition Centers, Inc. saw its year-over-year net income jump 56.3 percent to $12.7 million for the fourth quarter of the fiscal year that ended Dec. 31. For the same period a year earlier, GNC recorded $8.1 million in net income. Consolidated revenue for the quarter was up, too, from $391.7 million to $403.9 million. The company said revenue was up in each of its segments: 3.2 percent in retail, 4.3 percent in franchise operations and 1.1 percent in manufacturing/wholesale. In the fourth quarter, same-store sales, or sales in stores open at least a year, improved 1.2 percent in U.S. company stores. For the year, GNC had net income of $69.6 million, a 27.1 percent increase over the 2008 figure of $54.8 million. Consolidated revenue of $1.71 billion, compared to $1.66 billion in 2008. Also, in the final three months of 2009, GNC added 25 new company-owned U.S. stores, plus another one in Canada, 50 new international franchise locations and 55 new franchise store-within-a-store Rite Aid locations, while closing a net 10 domestic franchises stores.

Joy Global Inc., a Milwaukee mining equipment company with operations in the Pittsburgh region, reported net income of $76 million, or 73 cents per share, in the first quarter compared to $86 million, or 83 cents, during the same period a year ago. Net sales fell to $729 million in the three months ended Jan. 29 from $755 million a year earlier, although new orders in the quarter were up 22 percent over last year. For the fiscal year, Joy Global raised the lower end of its earnings per share projections to a range of $2.85 to $3.05. Analysts are looking for $2.99, according to Thomson Financial.

Cranberry discount teen retailer rue21 inc. has promoted Stacy Siegal to vice president and general counsel. Ms. Siegal had been corporate counsel and assistant secretary.

"Money Q&A" and "Company Town" are featured exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.