international deal with a German utility, Elektrizitatswerk Dahlenburg.

Element Re will provide financial protection to the utility against excessive rainfall during summer months.

The deal is one of the first to help protect business revenues against rainfall instead of against temperature, which is a more common index used in risk management programmes for utilities.

It was structured around rainfall because of its influence on the utility's revenues.

Herr Bannehr, chief executive officer of Elektritzitatswerk Dahlenburg, said: "Many of our customers are farmers who use electric power to pump water during periods of insufficient precipitation. The power we supply to them is an important part of our total revenue projection.'' Lynda Clemmons, president of Element Re, said: "This deal demonstrates that weather risk management can be used to help mitigate a wide variety of risks.

It is also exciting for us as a company because it signals our first foray into Europe, a market that is maturing rapidly and in which we expect to be very involved.'' Spectron, the London based energy broker, brokered the deal. Nicholas Ward, Spectron's head of new markets, said: "The interest we saw in this deal was extremely encouraging. We had attractive price quotes from a broad set of particpants. It is especially gratifying to have a hand in developing the German market for weather risk, which follows the healthy growth already seen in the UK, France and Scandinavia.''