Several years ago, Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) dominated the midstream universe, making MLP-only indexes a decent proxy for midstream broadly. Today, MLPs represent less than 40% of the North American midstream universe by market capitalization. An MLP-only index is ideal for benchmarking MLPs but is not sufficient for gauging North American midstream performance given the increased prevalence of US and Canadian corporations in the universe. In June 2018, Alerian launched the Alerian Midstream Energy Index (AMNA) to provide a sector benchmark for investors and industry stakeholders primarily concerned with representation. This piece discusses the superior representation of the AMNA Index and examines the benefits of a diversified energy infrastructure allocation as exemplified by the attributes of the index.
