Operating income for the period jumped 65 per cent, compared to the equivalent period last year, to $25.2m.Bob Beeston, chief executive of FKI, said: “We believe Logistex will now be able to offer an unrivalled breadth of expertise and experience in the market for logistics and sortation equipment, with pro-forma sales of some of pounds 460m.”. He said that news on disposals was likely in the next three to six months.He said: “We have found an area of e-commerce that we know something about There is long-term growth in these businesses. It’s bigger in the US right now but it will spread to Europe in the next three or four years.”In the nine months to 30 September, Pinnacle had turnover of $282.6m, with 28 per cent of sales directly to “dot ” businesses. The acquisition takes the share of FKI turnover from Logistex to almost 30 per cent, on a pro-forma basis.
Michael Blogg, an analyst at Charterhouse Securities, said: “E-commerce businesses will need to invest in hardware and those that can provide this will do very well FKI is moving in this direction and very quickly.

The growth rates in this division [Logistex] will be way above its other businesses.”The Pinnacle move is the third acquisition FKI has made in the materials handling sector in 1999, taking its spend on this activity this year to pounds 447m. The company’s shares rose 6.5p yesterday to 195p on the news.However, the purchase almost doubles FKI’s gearing to 160 per cent. Analysts said that the company’s strong cash flow and sale of non-core businesses should bring this level of debt down.Steven Jones, FKI’s director of corporate planning, said that interest cover was not a problem, at over five times. It can also withdraw if the link up fails to gain European Commission approval.Iberia has recently returned to profit after years of heavy losses. However, profits this year are only expected to reach around pounds 96m – half the level forecast – because of an industrial dispute and a price war.. FKI, THE engineering company, yesterday bolstered its evolution from metal-bashing to supplying the emerging Internet economy with the acquisition of a US sorting equipment firm.

The $368m (pounds 228.6m) cash purchase of Pinnacle Automation will be added to FKI’s Logistex division, which provides supply chain solutions used by Internet retailers, postal services and other distributors to send out goods and letters. However, BA will have more boardroom votes than any of the Spanish partners and the biggest say in the running of the airline.BA has the right to sell its shareholding in Iberia back to the state holding company Sepi if the flotation has not taken place by the end of next year. Iberia will also join the Oneworld airline alliance led by BA and American.BA, American and five Spanish companies yesterday paid half their combined pounds 700m investment with the balance due when the Spanish government clears the sale, probably before the end of the year.The biggest single shareholder in Iberia will be Caja Madrid, Spain’s second biggest savings bank, which will take a 10 per cent stake. The carrier is expected to be valued at between pounds 1.6bn and pounds 2bn.
Under the deal signed yesterday BA and American Airlines will buy a combined 10 per cent stake and become industrial partners in the Spanish carrier.