The first master limited partnership (MLP) was formed by Apache Oil Company in 1981. In 1987 Congress legislated the rules for publicly traded partnerships in Internal Revenue Code Section 7704. MLPs slowly gained in popularity during the 1980s and 1990s, with about two new MLP IPOs each year. Then, in the 2000s, the popularity of the MLP model began to soar. There were six new MLP IPOs in 2004, ten in 2005, and eighteen in 2006. The recession and oil price crash of 2008-2009 briefly derailed the momentum for new MLPs, but demand began to surge again in 2010. In 2013, an all-time high of twenty new MLPs hit the IPO market, but then popularity again began to wane as oil prices crashed in 2014. The MLP Advantage An MLP issues units rather than shares and passes profits to unit holders in the form of periodic distributions. Historically, the […]