Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI) announced Nov. 20 that the shareholders and unitholders of each Kinder Morgan company approved all proposals related to the Houston-based company's pending $44 billion merger.

In August, Kinder Morgan announced its plans to combine Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (NYSE: KMP), Kinder Morgan Management LLC (NYSE: KMR) and El Paso Pipeline Partners LP (NYSE: EPB) into Kinder Morgan Inc.

Combined, the company would own enough miles of pipeline to crisscross the U.S. about 25 times.

The closing of each merger is expected to occur on Nov. 26. Accordingly, it is expected that Nov. 26 will be the last trading day for KMP and EPB units as well as KMR shares.

Chairman and CEO Richard D. Kinder said in a statement, “We are delighted that shareholders and unitholders have shown overwhelming support by approving the transaction. We believe merging the companies benefits our shareholders and unitholders, simplifies the Kinder Morgan story by transitioning to one security and paves the way for superior growth at KMI for years to come."

Kinder Morgan Inc. projects a dividend of $2 per share for 2015, a 16% increase over the budgeted 2014 KMI dividend target of $1.72 per share, Kinder said. The company also expects to grow the dividend by about 10% each year from 2015 through 2020 while producing excess coverage of more than $2 billion.