Mystery as BAE chief quits

JOHN WESTON, chief executive of Britain's biggest manufacturer and exporter BAE Systems, stunned the City by quitting today without explanation. He leaves with a contractual pay-off of a year's salary of £619,000 despite company claims that there had been no boardroom bust-up.

However, BAE could offer no other reason for the sudden departure of one of Britain's most respected industrialists other than that he would be pursuing 'other interests'. His move wiped £488m off the share price of the aerospace and defence giant, with a 16p fall to 330p.

Today, both the City and BAE employees were speculating about the 50-year-old's sudden move. Some say it may have been due to a clash with chairman Sir Richard Evans or other board members. Others say he went because of his strongly-held pro-European views. Everyone agreed that the timing of his departure was both 'surprising and unusual'.

Recent US institutional buying of BAE shares has taken foreign ownership to 48% of the equity. Today the Government relaxes the 49.5% foreign ownership rule that could lead to BAE becoming an essentially US company. Its biggest customer is now the US government. Some analysts believe this may have been the catalyst for Weston's departure, although BAE denied it.

Weston goes with a pension entitlement of £235,000 and options on 1.2m BAE shares, some of which have already been realised. He is succeeded by 53-year-old Michael Turner, chief operating officer.

Weston's departure was announced as BAE issued a statement saying that trading remained in line with its predictions last month when it reported a fall in pre-tax profits to £70m from £179m in the year to December 2001. Weston accompanied the updated trading statement by saying: 'I have decided to look for fresh challenges in new fields.' BAE executives were as surprised as the City by his departure, though they were anxious to emphasis that there were no 'black holes' or 'scandals'.

Weston climbed to the top of BAE by working through a succession of companies that eventually formed the giant aerospace and defence group. He joined the British Aircraft Corporation in January 1970, having graduated as an engineer from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, with a first-class degree.