It’s been a good year for MLP IPOs: the next one will make 2014 the third most active after last year and 2006.

Source: Alerian

Three new MLP IPO registration statements recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) make it very likely we’ll get there, despite the recent market volatility.

Columbia Pipeline Partners (expected to list as CPPL) filed to raise up to $800 million in an IPO, which would be one of the largest initial offerings ever for an MLP. The partnership will begin as a subsidiary of the natural gas distributor NiSource (NYSE: NI), which plans to spin out CPPL’s general partner in mid-2015.

CPPL will not own particular assets dropped down by its general partner, but rather a rising percentage stake in an operating company representing the entire business. This includes 15,000 miles of strategically located interstate pipelines extending from New York to the Gulf of Mexico, one of the nation’s largest underground natural gas storage systems, and related gathering and processing assets concentrated in the fast-developing Marcellus and Utica shale basins. Revenue is projected to grow based on projects worth approximately $4 billion that are expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2018. Last year, 93% of Columbia OpCo’s revenue was generated under firm contracts.

For the year ending Sept. 30, 2015 Columbia OpCo is projected to generate $620 million in adjusted EBITDA, of which the estimated cash available for distribution from the 14.6% limited partner interest of Columbia Pipeline Partners LP is projected to be $65.7 million.

Athens, Greece-based Costamare Partners (expected to list as CMRP) is a growth-oriented MLP carved out of Costamare (NYSE: CMRE), an international owner of containerships. The $100 million IPO will be the first MLP focused on container ships, though Navios Maritime Partners (NMM) added several of these to its mostly dry-bulk fleet last year.

Costamere will initially drop down four modern containerships with an average capacity of approximately 9,000 twenty foot equivalent units (TEU) and an average remaining charter term of about 6.7 years. The charters of these four ships expire between 2018 and 2023. Costamare Partners will have the option to purchase 10 more vessels from its parent within the next 12 months, and has options on joint venture interests in nine others.

In 2013, net income attributable to Costamare Partners’ predecessor was $14.97 million.The partnership projects that in 2015 net income will increase to $29.12 million, and cash available for distribution will be approximately $34.2 million.

As with most partnerships with significant foreign or marine operations, Costamare Partners has chosen to pay taxes as a corporation, which means distributions will be 1099 income. (To better understand why a partnership would elect to be taxed as a corporation, see Marshalling the Marines.)

Houston-based PennTex Midstream Partners was founded earlier this year, and plans to go public (under the PTXP ticker) by year end. Its sponsor, PennTex Development, was formed by Natural Gas Partners (NYSE: NGP) to develop a multi-basin midstream growth platform. The partnership’s initial focus will be on organic growth projects in partnership with oil and natural gas producers affiliated with NGP. Initial assets of the $150 million IPO will consist of the following:

• Lincoln Parish Plant: a 200 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) cryogenic natural gas processing plant in Lincoln Parish, Louisiana.

• PennTex Gathering Pipeline: a 30.5-mile rich natural gas gathering system that will provide producers access to the Lincoln Parish Plant and to the Minden Plant owned and operated by DCP Midstream Partners (NYSE: DPM), with available capacity of at least 400 MMcf/d to the Lincoln Parish Plant and 50 MMcf/d to the Minden Plant.

• PennTex Gas Pipeline: a one-mile natural gas header with 400 MMcf/d of capacity that will provide market access for natural gas from the Lincoln Parish Plant for delivery to multiple intrastate and interstate pipelines, including pipelines that provide access to the Perryville Hub and other markets in the Gulf Coast region.

• PennTex NGL Pipeline: a 12-mile NGL pipeline with a total capacity of over 36,000 barrels per day, which will connect the Lincoln Parish Plant to the Black Lake Pipeline owned and operated by DCP Midstream, and will provide a Mont Belvieu-based market for NGLs produced from the Lincoln Parish Plant.

For the 12 months ending March 31, 2016 PennTex Midstream Partners projects adjusted EBITDA of $38 million, and $36.4 million in distributable cash flow.

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Portfolio Update

MLPs Bounce Back With Gusto

When we urged subscribers to “stay the course” with MLPs on Oct. 14, it was hard to conceive that the Alerian MLP Index might put together gains of 4.1% and 4.6%. Yet that’s exactly what happened. In the three trading sessions since the index has kept pushing higher, so that it’s now at a level that constituted a record high on June 20, before the final melt-up in into that quarter’s end.

Given the panic selling of the prior two weeks, the rebound certainly makes sense based on the fundamentals, which for the vast majority of midstream MLPs remain stable and lucrative with crude and gas prices at current levels.

But the supply/demand dynamics that have depressed energy prices lately have not yet had a chance to improve, and may not do so given the shale production boom against the backdrop of a global growth slowdown. And if energy prices were to head even lower to balance rising supply with the more modestly growing demand, MLPs certainly could get hit again.

Which doesn’t mean there’s not plenty to buy. Every one of our eight Best Buys remains below its buy limit, though no longer by much in the case of some. So do Spectra Energy (NYSE: SE) and Delek Logistics (NYSE: DKL), two new recommendations published Thursday that have since returned 2% and 4%, respectively.

One advantage an individual MLP investor has over funds that have poured into this space lately is the ability to practice patience in the face of adversity without incurring a fund manager’s career risk.

The pros had fund redemptions and risk officers to deal with last week, and consequently some sold at the panic lows, then had to pay up to buy back in. The individual investor had the luxury of being able to do nothing, though that certainly required confidence in one’s convictions

Our goal, even more so than making profitable recommendations, is to provide you with the information needed to to act — or not — with confidence the next time there’s panic in the air.

— Igor Greenwald