Swank Energy Income Advisors, LP, Launches Cushing(R) 30 MLP Index

DALLAS, Jan. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Swank Energy Income Advisors, LP ("Swank Energy"), an SEC-registered Investment Advisor focused on MLPs and natural resource companies, today announced the launch of the Cushing® 30 MLP Index, a composite of the MLP asset class. The Cushing® 30 MLP Index is an equal-weighted index comprised of 30 MLPs selected for inclusion according to a proprietary valuation system. Swank Energy believes the Cushing® 30 MLP Index is an optimal measure of the performance of publicly traded energy infrastructure companies.

Swank Capital founder and managing partner, Jerry Swank commented, "With a current average yield just over 7%, MLPs offer a compelling total return proposition from both current income and capital appreciation. The asset class has also demonstrated sustainability and relative stability throughout this recent, challenging economic environment. We believe there will be strong demand from both retail and institutional investors looking for yield and inflation protection."

Swank Energy's Cushing® 30 MLP Index has been developed for actual use by portfolio managers and does not include the more commodity-sensitive upstream and shipping MLP sub-sectors.

    All indices are total return.
    (see below for index descriptions)
                                               Average Trailing
                                                 Total Return
                                               (Trailing CAGR)        CAGR
                                               ----------------       Since
    Index                          2009     1 Yr    3 Yrs    5 Yrs    Jan-02
    -----                          ----     ----    -----    -----    ------
    Cushing(R) 30 MLP
     Index                       96.11%    96.11%   12.35%   15.04%   19.73%
    S&P 500 Index                26.46%    26.46%   (5.62%)   0.42%    1.59%
    REIT Index                   28.47%    28.47%  (12.18%)   0.51%    8.47%
    PHLX Utility Index           10.04%    10.04%   (1.60%)   6.21%    7.15%
    Merrill Lynch High
     Yield Bond Index            57.51%    57.51%    5.81%    6.35%    8.32%
    Merrill Lynch Muni
     Bond Index                  23.17%    23.17%    1.90%    4.04%    5.42%

To be eligible for the index, a company must be structured as a Master Limited Partnership and be primarily engaged in natural resource-related businesses, such as transportation, storage, gathering and processing. In addition to meeting numerous financial criteria outlined in Swank Energy's proprietary valuation system designed for the Cushing® 30 MLP Index, the company must be publicly traded and currently pay a distribution.

The Cushing® 30 MLP Index will be calculated by Standard & Poor's and priced on a real-time, daily basis by S&P under the ticker MLPX as well as on a total-return basis, using end of day pricing, under the ticker MLPXTR. For more information about the Index, please visit www.cushingmlpindex.com

ABOUT SWANK ENERGY INCOME ADVISORS, LP.

Swank Energy Income Advisors, LP ("Swank Energy"), is an SEC-registered Investment Advisor headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Swank Energy serves as investment adviser to affiliated funds, which invest primarily in securities of MLPs and other natural resource companies. Through these and related investment vehicles, Swank Energy seeks to achieve a high after-tax total return from a combination of capital appreciation and current income (as opposed to relative performance against a benchmark index). The Investment Advisor seeks to identify and exploit investment niches it believes are generally less understood and less followed by the broader investor community.

Index Descriptions:

The Cushing® 30 MLP Index is an equal-weighted index of the 30 most stable and widely held energy infrastructure MLPs. The S&P 500 is an index of 500 stocks used industry wide as a macro level indicator of the overall U.S. equity market. The REIT Index is the Dow Jones Equity REIT Total Return Index which includes REITs that directly own all or part of the properties in their portfolios. The PHLX Utility Index is a utility sector index which includes communication services, electrical power providers and natural gas distributors. The Merrill Lynch High Yield Bond Index is an unmanaged index that tracks the performance of below-investment-grade U.S. dollar-denominated corporate bonds. The Merrill Lynch Muni Bond Index is an unmanaged index comprised of investment grade municipal bonds.

SOURCE Swank Energy Income Advisors, LP