NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - June 2, 2009) - The founders and principals of Galileo Weather Risk Management Advisors LLC (Galileo) have acquired the company from the White Mountains Insurance Group (White Mountains). As part of the acquisition, Galileo has secured access to increased transactional capacity from a new investor group as well as strong counterparty credit through a fronting relationship with a highly-rated global insurance company.

Galileo will continue to offer its customized line of WeatherLock™ risk management products on a global basis, with payouts linked to weather or its effect on commodity prices. In addition, Galileo is introducing of a new slate of products in 2009 aimed at the burgeoning renewable energy sector -- WindLock™, SolarLock™ and HydroLock™.

"We want to thank White Mountains for their support over the past three years, which was invaluable in creating and building a market-leading weather risk management franchise," said Martin Malinow, Galileo's CEO. "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."

"On behalf of White Mountains we would like to thank the Galileo team for their successful effort in building the weather platform. They are an entrepreneurial group of professionals and I have no doubt that they will continue to build on the successes that we enjoyed together," said Allan Waters, CEO of White Mountains Re.

Galileo Weather Risk Management Advisors LLC is a leading company in the weather risk management industry, offering weather-driven financial products to corporations and governments on a global basis. The company, based in New York, was formed in 2005 by Martin Malinow and Scott Edwards in partnership with White Mountains, and has affiliate offices in London and Bermuda.