Japan's Mitsui Marine and America's Aquila Join Together to Expand Global Markets for Weather Risk Management

Business Wire, April 19, 2001

Business Editors

KANSAS CITY, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2001

One of Japan's leading insurance companies, Mitsui Marine and Fire Insurance Co., Ltd. (Mitsui Marine), and America's Aquila, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of UtiliCorp United (NYSE:UCU), have formed a strategic alliance to market products in the global weather derivatives market, which has an estimated size of $11 billion.

Under the terms of the agreement, Mitsui Marine will market in Japan and Asia weather risk management products similar to Aquila's already established family of products marketed under the GuaranteedWeather(R) brand in North America and Europe. The two companies have agreed to combine their skills and experience in the technologies related to the quantification and management of weather risks. 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.

Through this alliance, the two companies intend to build a diversified global weather risk portfolio, allowing them to provide attractive pricing to customers. Aquila will manage the global portfolio on a daily basis. Mitsui Marine will originate risks in the Japanese and Asian markets and will participate in the gains and losses of the portfolio.

The two companies also plan to create a Japanese-language version of Aquila's recently launched Web site, GuaranteedWeather.com, which allows users to structure and price customized weather hedges for more than 300 locations around the globe.

Based in Kansas City, Aquila is a provider of risk management services and a leading wholesaler of electricity and natural gas in North America. The company also provides wholesale services in the U.K. and Canada and has a presence in Bermuda, Scandinavia, Germany and Spain. Aquila is a wholly owned subsidiary of UtiliCorp United, an international energy company with more than 4 million customers across the U.S. and in Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia. At December 31, 2000, UtiliCorp had $14 billion in assets and annual sales of $29 billion.

Mitsui Marine is Japan's 3rd-largest insurance company and is soon to be the largest by virtue of its anticipated merger in October 2001 with fourth-ranked Sumitomo Marine. The merged companies' interests will center around the provision of insurance products and risk management services. The company is headquartered in Tokyo and in its last fiscal year had $5.8 billion of net insurance premiums written. It has more than 500 offices, including 49 overseas offices with branches in 30 countries. The company employs 50,000 agents in Japan.