Blackstone hires bank for possible FKI bid-paper

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. private equity group Blackstone (BX.N), which last year walked away from bid talks with FKI FKI.L, has hired bankers to examine making a counter bid for the engineering group, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Blackstone has recruited Credit Suisse to evaluate an offer for FKI after rival bidder Melrose Plc (NYN.L) raised its cash-and-shares bid proposal to 500 million pounds ($1 billion), worth some 82.1 pence a FKI share, which came after a 70p initial approach from Melrose in early February.

FKI and Blackstone were not immediately available to comment.