Bloomberg.com: U.K.

Bloomberg.com: U.K.: "BAA Chief Clasper Quits After Takeover; Nelson Named (Update1)
July 13 (Bloomberg) -- BAA Plc said Chief Executive Officer Mike Clasper quit a month after the world's largest airport operator was acquired by Grupo Ferrovial SA for 10.1 billion pounds ($18.6 billion).
Stephen Nelson, head of BAA's retail division, will take over as CEO today, the London-based airport operator said in a statement. Clasper, who had led the company since June 2003, will act as an adviser to BAA over the next year.
Nelson, 43, joined BAA in September from J Sainsbury Plc, Britain's third-largest supermarket, to lift profit at the airport-retail operation. Clasper, 53, spent his last month at BAA, the owner of London Heathrow airport, overseeing a bidding competition for the company between Ferrovial, Spain's second- largest builder, and a team led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
``Now that Mike has decided that this is the right time for him to leave BAA, Stephen is exactly the right person,'' Chairman Marcus Agius said in the statement.
Ferrovial, based in Madrid, acquired BAA after a decade in which passenger numbers at U.K. airports have almost doubled. The Spanish company is adding air travel assets abroad to help counter any slowdown in the domestic construction industry.
Deputy Chief Named
Luis Sanchez Salmeron, director of Ferrovial's existing airport business, becomes deputy chief executive officer of BAA, the U.K. company said today.
Nelson's appointment comes as BAA faces an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading, a U.K. antitrust regulator, into whether the company's dominance of airports in England and Scotland is costing travelers and airlines too much money.
BAA, which also owns London's Gatwick and Stansted airports "