A Brief History of the MLP Mutual Fund

Written by admin on May 1st, 2011

Of the many investment products out there, the MLP Mutual Fund has attracted a lot of interest with its recent introduction. Here is a brief review of its operations.

 

Master Limited Partnership (MLP) is a type of limited partnership that is publicly traded. There are two types of partners in this type of partnership.

 

Limited Partner

General Partner

 

The limited partner is the person or group that provides the capital to the MLP and receives periodic income distributions from the cash flow of MLP, whereas the general partner is the party responsible for managing the affairs of MLP and receives compensation that is linked to the performance of the venture.

 

If we look back at the history of MLP mutual fund, it can be observed that it is indeed a brief one. On May 12th 2010, SteelPath, a Dallas-based investment advisory firm, announced the launch of the SteelPath MLP Funds, the very first mutual fund family to provide access to the Master Limited Partnership asset class.

 

The SteelPath fund consists of portfolio managers and investment team with a six year track record at Alerian, the leading MLP indexing company. SteelPath uses research techniques like fundamental analysis in this emerging asset class, incorporating its bottoms-up, private-equity investment process with a risk management philosophy designed to protect capital and mitigate portfolio volatility. The mutual fund platform of firm seeks to provide high levels of current income along with portfolio diversification, protection against inflation and a low correlation to other asset classes.

 

SteelPath has introduced three new funds which are as follows:

 

MLP Income Fund – This fund provides a high level of current income with an inflation adjusted protection tool, a higher distribution yield compared to equity alternatives such as REITs (Real Estate Investment Trust) and Utilities. This feature makes the fund the lead performer amongst the three.

 

MLP Select 40 Fund – Consisting of 40 energy infrastructure MLPs, this fund seeks to outperform the broader equity markets. Select 40 fund portfolio provides diversification and risk elimination.

 

MLP Alpha Fund – The Alpha fund is a concentrated portfolio of 20 energy infrastructure MLPs that utilizes a securities selection procedure designed to unveil those MLPs with the best risk-adjusted opportunities for superior distribution growth and price performance.

 

These funds focus on energy infrastructure MLPs. This asset class is composed of companies that control and operate the physical assets that transport crude oil, natural gas and refined petroleum products, such as pipelines, as well as the associated storage facilities. These companies have long-term contracts with nominal exposure to commodity prices, therefore reducing volatility in income.

 

The SteelPath MLP mutual fund family offers options that have been designed to meet alternating investor needs while concentrating on a long-term investment tenure, diversified exposure and prudent risk management. All three funds have a Class A share asset class which can be procured by a minimum investment of 00 by individuals, while the institutional class shares have been explicitly created to provide a cost efficient option for institutional investors from pension funds to insurance companies.

 

Special risk considerations are taken into account in case of these funds which are very similar to those associated with the direct ownership of energy infrastructure assets due to its policy of concentration in the securities of Master Limited Partnerships.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Leave a Reply