Galileo Weather in management buy-out
London, 4 June: Galileo Weather Risk Management Advisors has been bought by its founders for an undisclosed sum and has linked up with a soon-to-be-named insurance company that will provide counterparty credit.

The firm is a leading dealer of weather risk management products, providing derivatives or insurance to businesses wanting to mitigate their financial exposure to weather conditions.

Galileo was established in December 2005 by Marty Malinow and Scott Edwards in partnership with White Mountains Insurance Group, a Bermuda-domiciled insurer and reinsurer. Both men were formerly senior executives at XL Weather & Energy.

As part of the acquisition from White Mountains, Galileo said it had “secured access to increased transactional capacity” from an investor group, which Malinow declined to name. Galileo’s counterparty credit will be guaranteed by a “highly-rated global insurance company” the identity of which will be revealed in due course, he added.

“We believe our buyout of the Galileo platform will allow us to expand our broad array of value-added risk management products, and enhance the capacity and security that we provide to our counterparties,” said Malinow, the firm’s CEO.

Galileo has six employees, five at its base in New York and one in London. Malinow said the team would continue at this size for the immediate future.