Aquila Forms Alliance With Mitsui for Weather Risk Management

Kansas City-based Aquila, Inc. will join forces with Japan’s Mitsui Marine and Fire Insurance Co. to develop and market weather risk management products in Japan and Asia.

Aquila, a diversified subsidiary of UtiliCorp United, is a leading marketer of risk management services in the U.S. and Europe, as well as a wholesale provider of natural gas and electricity. Its family of “Guaranteed Weather” (R) products, principally weather derivatives are marketed both directly and through the company’s website, which offers “customized weather hedges for more than 300 locations around the globe.”

Mitsui, already Japan’s 3rd largest insurance company, is in then process of merging with 4th ranked Sumitomo Marine, which would make it the country’s largest with a strong presence throughout Asia. The alliance with Aquila will give both companies a truly global risk management capacity.

“The two companies have agreed to combine their skills and experience in the technologies related to the quantification and management of weather risks,” said the announcement. “Weather derivatives are used to offset the adverse affects of abnormal weather on the revenues and income of businesses. Target customers for weather derivatives include companies in energy, agriculture, construction and entertainment.”