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A good spot to read up on Publicly Traded Partnerships is to visit
the National Association of Publicly Traded Partnerships at
http://www.naptp.org/

Scorecard

Publicly Traded Partnerships also known as Master Limited Partnerships (MLP's):

A type of limited partnership that is publicly traded. There are two types of partners in this type of partnership:
The limited partner is the person or group that provides the capital to the MLP and receives periodic income
distributions from the MLP's cash flow, whereas the general partner is the party responsible for managing the
MLP's affairs and receives compensation that is linked to the performance of the venture.

One of the most crucial criterion that must be met in order for a partnership to be legally classified as an MLP
is that the partnership must derive most (~90%) of its cash flows from real estate, natural resources and commodities.

The advantage of an MLP is that it combines the tax benefits of a limited partnership (the partnership does not pay
taxes from the profit - the money is only taxed when unit holders receive distributions) with the liquidity of a publicly
traded company.

Like all income producing investments, the distributions provided by a MLP must be uninterrupted.
A growing distribution to you, the unit holder, signifies a strong underlying company. The MLP must also be
financially sound including current reserves as well as access to debt for future needs. Partnership units are subject to market ups
and downs like all other investments in stock markets, but the key to long term success are the factors mentioned above.

MY VIEWPOINT: MLP's require a steady infusion of capital as they are capital intensive businesses, generally not
something I like in most businesses. Their tax structure however allows them to operate in this environment,
and the strong partnerships have access to capital markets through both debt and equity. A well managed partnership
will provide growing distributions for years to come.

MLP's to consider:

Plains All American Pipelines (PAA) (Yahoo Quote HERE)

Coverage Initiated: January 13, 2009 Entry Price: $ 38.00/unit

On Monday, oil for February delivery closed at $37.59 a barrel on the Nymex, or nearly $15 lower than July's contract price.

This situation, where the price of a near-term future contract is worth less than oil for delivery in several months, is called contango.
It's the norm in oil markets, with the price gap representing the cost of storing the oil and locking up investors' money.

But such a distance between contracts is unusual, sparking industry insiders to term the phenomenon -- which reached an apex in late December - "super contango."

Crude oil storage is a particularly attractive market right now. This is exactly what Plains All American sells.

This gap between near-term and far-off future prices partly reflects current sluggish demand and expectations that demand will pick up in the following months. At less than $38 a barrel, oil is currently trading nearly $110 lower than its record high hit in July.

So instead of selling oil at a depressed price amid sluggish demand, more producers and investors are hoarding oil for future sales.

Plains hasn�t yet reported third quarter results, but the company recently boosted its quarterly payout to 89.25 cents, up about 6.5 percent year-over-year. The firm also announced that, as of the end of the third quarter, it had $765 million in undrawn capacity on a credit facility that doesn�t expire until 2012.
With a capital spending plan of around $250 million for 2009, that�s plenty of liquidity to fund projects without seeking new credit
capacity of issuing new units.

A slow-but-steady performer with a solid yield of just over 9 percent. A chart below highlights the annual distributions
paid out by PAA since 1999.

1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
148.64	193.14	158.79	169.11	247.78	311.70	422.64	205.15	175.81	Sales per sh
d2.67	2.21	1.69	2.00	2.66	3.01	4.91	4.11	4.70	��Cash Flow�� per sh
d3.16	1.44	1.25	1.34	1.54	1.97	3.48	3.50	3.09	Earnings per sh B
1.84	1.83	1.95	2.11	2.21	2.30	2.58	2.87	3.28	DISTRIBUTIONS
0.40	0.37	0.49	0.82	1.29	1.74	2.22	3.12	4.72	Cap�l Spending per sh
6.10	6.22	9.31	10.32	14.70	15.90	18.04	27.21	29.52	Book Value per sh
31.63	34.39	43.25	49.58	50.81	67.29	73.77	109.41	116.00	Common Shs Outst�g D

Sunoco Logistics Partners (NYSE: SXL) (Yahoo Quote HERE)

Suncoco Logistics owns a series of refined products pipelines and crude oil terminals.
These are among the most stable businesses an MLP can own.

Refined products pipelines carry petroleum products such as gasoline and jet fuels. Like all pipelines, revenues are based on volumes
transported, not prices. Of course, the volume of refined products transported in and around the US has been falling in recent quarters
due to the recession. The company ranks at the bottom of its industry group in terms of debt burden. Iit has a lot less exposure to weak credit
markets than its peer group. In addition, Sunoco has $400 million in undrawn credit facilities and unrestricted cash. That compares favorably
to its $125 million or so of growth and maintenance capital expenditure needs for 2008.

Sunoco Logistics doesn�t need access to the capital markets this year or next.

Sunoco has a long history of producing consistent distribution increases over time from its low-risk asset base. In the most
recent quarter, Sunoco boosted distributions by 13.5 percent year-over-year. And management has reaffirmed its guidance to boost
distributions by a further 10 percent in 2009 despite the weak credit market conditions.

CONTACT ME WITH ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS AT support@vmwinc.com

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