BAA, the owner of Heathrow airport, will today disclose that it has sold a chain of 58 duty-free shops in a £545 million deal that will raise much-needed cash for the heavily geared business.

The airport operator, which was bought by a consortium of infrastructure investors led by Ferrovial, the Spanish construction group, in 2006, has sold its World Duty Free chain to Italy’s Autogrill.

BAA has been looking to sell non-core assets and its duty-free shops as it struggles under the strain of £9 billion of debt, which was raised to fund the controversial takeover of the airport group. Ferrovial originally intended to refinance its borrowings quickly, but the credit crunch has forced it to defer that plan. Increased security costs and widespread anger over long delays at its airports have also raised its operating costs substantially.

Autogrill, owned by the Benetton family, has secured a 12-year concession from BAA giving it exclusive rights to run the stores, including those at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.

The deal cements Autogrill’s position as the world’s biggest provider of food and drink for travellers after its acquisition last year of Alpha Airports, the catering operator in smaller UK airports. World Duty Free is likely to be combined with Alpha to generate considerable cost savings. Autogrill is also bidding for full control of Aldeasa, which operates more than 200 airport shops in Spain, Portugal, Latin America and Africa.

BAA will learn tomorrow from the Civil Aviation Authority what return on investment the regulator will allow it to make at Heathrow and Gatwick. The CAA is expected to repeat its findings in November that BAA’s cost of capital should be cut from 7.75 per cent to 6.2 per cent at Heathrow and to 6.5 per cent at Gatwick.

Such calculations determine BAA’s permitted returns and such a decision would blow a £150 million hole in the airport operator’s annual cashflows. Ferrovial had been hoping for continuation of the 7.75 per cent regime.

Ferrovial is still planning to securit-ise its £9 billion debt, but is expected to wait until the middle of the year, in hope that credit markets will recover.

In the meantime, selling its duty-free shops will take some pressure off BAA, of which Colin Matthews, is to take over as chief executive on April 1.

Other asset sales may be shelved now. BAA had appointed Macquarie, the Australian investment bank, to advise on the value of its seven airports, which include three Scottish airports. Observers believe the company could have been preparing to sell at least one of the airports, possibly Gatwick, although the company denied this.

Ferrovial’s annual results last month showed that BAA’s £1.04 billion of operating cashflow is insufficient to cover an £824 million interest bill and fund a £1 billion-a-year capital expenditure programme.

BAA is expected to lodge its planning application for a controversial second runway at Stansted this week. It is also expected to face a call for its break-up from the Commons Transport Select Committee on Friday.

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