Income hunters who are browsing through the master limited partnership space have another option available to them as First Trust begins trading its new actively managed MLP exchange traded fund.
First Trust North American Energy Infrastructure Fund (NYSEArca: EMLP) started trading this week.
The fund has an active management that will try to provide a high level of total return by investing in U.S. and Canadian companies engaged in the energy infrastructure sector, such as MLPs, MLP related entities, pipeline and power and gas utility companies and Candian energy infrastructure companies. EMLP has an expense ratio of 0.95%. [What You Need to Know About MLP ETFs]
“[Energy Income Partners] believes that energy infrastructure companies in North America have an increased ability to benefit from the attractive economics of today’s energy sector,” according to a press release. “These improved economics, driven by major advances in drilling technology, are resulting in growing production of oil and natural gas requiring a new generation of energy infrastructure to support this new supply.”
For instance, the note points out that the U.S. and Canada will require midstream natural gas investments of $205.2 billion from 2011 to 2035 as natural gas demand increases an average 1.6% per year through 2035.
Energy MLPs have provided attractive distribution and dividend growth rates. MLPs offer an average 6.1% distribution rate and witnessed a 6.8% dividend growth over the last 10 years. In contrast, the S&P 500 has a 2.0% distribution rate and dividend growth rate of 5.8% over the past decade.
Additionally, it should be noted that as an ETF product, EMLP investors will only need to fill out one Form 1099 at the end of the year, instead of the multiple K-1s and potential state filings. Moreover, due to the innate arbitrage mechanism that creates and redeem shares, investors will see no or low capital gains distributions.
For more information on new product launches, visit our new ETFs category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.