Alerian Announces Vanguard Natural Resources Added to the Alerian MLP Index

DALLAS, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alerian announced today that following the close of business on Tuesday, August 31, Vanguard Natural Resources LLC VNR will be added to the Alerian MLP Index AMZ, replacing Williams Pipeline Partners LP WMZ in a special rebalancing.

Special rebalancings are triggered by corporate actions that result in the termination of trading of an index constituent on a major US exchange. Such corporate actions include, but are not limited to, mergers, delistings, and bankruptcies. Subject to unitholder approval, Williams will cease to trade on the New York Stock Exchange at the close of business on August 31 due to its merger with Williams Partners LP WPZ.

Vanguard is a publicly traded limited liability company focused on the acquisition, production, and development of natural gas and oil properties. Vanguard's assets consist primarily of producing and non-producing natural gas and oil reserves located in the southern portion of the Appalachian Basin, the Permian Basin, South Texas, and Mississippi.

VNR Shares Outstanding: 22,086,173

VNR Investable Weight Factor: 0.84438499146049

The 50 constituents of the index will be rebalanced on a float-adjusted, capitalization-weighted basis in accordance with the existing index methodology. Constituent additions to and deletions from the index do not reflect an opinion by Alerian on the investment merits of the respective securities.

About the Alerian MLP Index

The Alerian MLP Index is a composite of the 50 most prominent energy Master Limited Partnerships that provides investors with an unbiased, comprehensive benchmark for this emerging asset class. The index, which is calculated using a float-adjusted, capitalization-weighted methodology, is disseminated real-time on a price-return basis AMZ, and the corresponding total-return index is disseminated daily through ticker AMZX. Relevant data points such as dividend yield are also published daily. For index values, constituents, and announcements regarding constituent changes, please visit www.alerian.com.

About Alerian

Alerian is an independent company that provides objective market information. The company is a leader in MLP-market intelligence, providing benchmarks, data sets, and analytics that are used extensively by a range of stakeholders such as investment banks, stock exchanges, investment professionals, consultants, and Master Limited Partnerships. The Alerian Index Series is used for the purposes of asset allocation, investment analysis, portfolio hedging, and the creation of index tracking funds. Alerian is widely known for maintaining the leading benchmark of MLP equities: the Alerian MLP Index AMZ. For more information, please visit www.alerian.com.

SOURCE Alerian