Will Kinder Morgan Inc's Canadian Troubles Derail Dividend Growth?

This past July, Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) announced plans to significantly increase cash returns to shareholders starting next year. The pipeline giant said it would raise its dividend 60% in 2018 and provide 25% increases in both 2019 and 2020 as well as repurchase up to $2 billion in stock. Fueling this massive return of capital is the company's decision to increase the percentage of cash flow it pays out each year and the $12.2 billion of growth projects it expects to place into service over the next few years.

That said, the company recently experienced a setback on its planned Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion in Canada, which is the largest of those growth projects, at $5.7 billion. That's after Canada's National Energy Board (NEB) told the company's Canadian subsidiary, Kinder Morgan Canada Limited (TSX: KML) to stop some preliminary work on the project, which the company said could delay it by a full year. While there is some concern that this could affect Kinder Morgan's dividend growth plans, it does have some levers to pull that could keep it on track.

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Source: Fool.com