The Kinder Morgan family of companies is an energy pipeline giant made up of four publicly traded securities:

  • Kinder Morgan,(KMI -0.30%), a typical "C"-type company that owns the general partner stake in the group.
  • Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP) and El Paso Pipeline Partners (EPB), publicly traded limited partner units that own and operate much of the pipeline infrastructure controlled by the group.
  • Kinder Morgan Management (NYSE: KMR), a publicly traded limited liability company responsible for managing the group.

In the video below, portfolio manager Chuck Saletta explains the three reasons why he's happy to hold on to the shares of Kinder Morgan bought for the real-money Inflation-Protected Income Growth portfolio.

Graphic showing how the four parts of Kinder Morgan fit together:

Source: Kinder Morgan investor presentation dated May 22, 2014. Full-size image on slide 3.

And here are the debt-to-equity ratios for the four different stock-like securities in the Kinder Morgan family

CompanyDebt to Equity Ratio
Kinder Morgan, Inc 1.3
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners 1.3
El Paso Pipeline Partners 2.1
Kinder Morgan Management 0.0

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