Growing quietly

The liberalised German markets now allow large industrial end-users to manage their energy price risk. But, while the competition to manage their exposures is large, these firms are playing their cards close to their chests, reports Joel Hanley

As the German energy market develops and the number of financial trades increases, large end-users are finding themselves on the threshold of a potentially money-saving idea: risk management.

For many energy-intensive businesses, risk management is an alien concept, but David Shaw, a principal at management consultants AT Kearney in London, is among those looking to change all that. “Many large industrial companies and municipalities have previously thought of trading as some new thing to be