Tortoise Capital Advisors Launches New MLP Index
Tortoise Capital Advisors, LLC, announced on January 28, 2010 that it has launched the Tortoise MLP Index, a float-adjusted, capitalization weighted index of energy master limited partnerships (MLPs). The Tortoise MLP Index is comprised of publicly-traded companies organized in the form of limited partnerships or limited liability companies engaged in the transportation, production, processing, and/or storage of energy commodities.
The merits of investing in U.S. oil and gas infrastructure MLP companies within the infrastructure asset class are becoming more attractive to both retail investors and large institutional investors. These companies operate networks of interconnected pipeline and storage assets allowing for the movement of vital energy commodities across vast distances from where they are produced or refined to the consumer. The reliability of these networks is essential to the functioning of daily economic activity, and the assets are expected to continue to generate revenue for many decades.
“The Tortoise MLP Index broadens the longest running institutional index which we developed with our former affiliate, Atlantic Asset Management, in 2003, said Tortoise Capital Advisors' Managing Director, Zachary Hamel. “Our new index makes energy infrastructure performance analysis available to a broader base of Tortoise investors.”
“We believe the Tortoise MLP Index provides a comprehensive view of the energy MLP universe, with an important distinction, added Mr. Hamel. “Our index includes all energy subsectors and general partners, and is the only MLP Index with a 10 percent cap on any MLP constituent, which in our view reflects a criterion commonly used by a significant segment of our investor base.”
"We intend to use the Tortoise MLP Index as we have concluded that it is the most meaningful MLP index for our performance analysis and comparison purposes,” said Michael Finnegan, Chief Investment Officer with Principal Management Corp. “With its broad coverage and cap on issuer concentrations, it most closely reflects our investment style.”
The Tortoise MLP Index is calculated by S&P Custom Indices, a service of Standard & Poor’s. The Index has a base level of 100 as of its base date of Dec. 31, 1999, is rebalanced quarterly and is independently calculated on both a price-return and a total-return basis. The total-return Index level is calculated at the end of each trading day and is available under the ticker “TMLPT.” The real-time index level for the price-return version of the index is available from major market data providers, including Bloomberg and Reuters, under the ticker “TMLP.”
Additional information on the Tortoise MLP Index, including performance and methodology information and FAWs, is available at http://www.tortoiseadvisors.com/tortoise-mlp-index.cfm.--or you can access index FAQs and methodology by clicking on the links below: