FKI to buy Crisplant for pounds 186.5m

FKI to buy Crisplant for pounds 186.5m

FKI, THE diversified engineering group, yesterday agreed to buy Crisplant Industries, a Danish maker of sorting systems, for pounds 186.5m in an attempt to prioritise its material handling division.

The offer at 425 Danish kroner per share, for which FKI has 54 per cent acceptances, represents a 23.9 per cent premium on Crisplant's closing share price on 21 May. But FKI's chief executive, Bob Beeston, dismissed criticisms that FKI had paid too full a price, noting that it gave FKI entry into Crisplant's booming e-commerce and home-shopping mail-sorting business, and was compatible with its own conveyor belt business. FKI shares closed up 1.5p at 177.5p