BAA has sold World Duty Free Europe (WDF) to Italian company Autogrill for "546.6m ($1,102m). The deal gives Autogrill a 12-year concession agreement for the operation of the stores at BAA"s seven UK airports, subject to regulatory approval. The airports operator said last week " when it announced a new CEO will take over from April " that it was looking for a buyer for its chain of 58 duty free shops as part of efforts to raise cash to help pay off huge debts. "BAA is selling WDF as part of its ongoing non-core asset disposal programme," the company said in a statement. "Proceeds of the sale will be used to repay debt." And a spokesman told ABTN: "The significant thing is that "546m is at the high end of expectation as to how much we"d get for WDF, so we"re pleased."