Infracapital appoints former BAA boss

Infracapital, the London-based infrastructure fund manager, has hired Stephen Nelson as an asset management director. 

 

Nelson was chief executive of UK airport operator BAA between 2006 and 2008 when it owned Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports. He had previously been group retail director at BAA, which has since been re-branded as Heathrow following the sales of Gatwick and Stansted. 

 

Two years after Spanish company Ferrovial’s takeover of BAA, Nelson was replaced by former Severn Trent chief executive Colin Matthews. It was a time of upheaval for BAA, which was struggling to shorten security queues and faced a complex refinancing. Nelson was credited with overseeing the completion of Heathrow’s Terminal 5.   

 

In all, Nelson has more than 15 years of operational and main board experience and was group trading director at supermarket chain J Sainsbury before joining BAA. He is a non-executive director of the Office of Rail Regulation. 

 

Martin Lennon, head of Infracapital, said that Nelson’s “business acumen and his detailed knowledge of transport infrastructure and regulation, combined with extensive experience of consumer businesses will…be of real value to our team and the growing and diverse infrastructure businesses we manage”. 

 

Infracapital, which is part of M&G Investments, has £1.3 billion (€1.5 billion; $2.0 billion) of investments in businesses across the communications, renewables, transport, utilities and social infrastructure sectors. 

 

In June last year, the firm teamed with Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners to acquire a 90 percent stake in Veolia Environnement’s regulated UK water business in a deal worth £1.24 billion.