yes, around 4 years ago from memory.It was a cash & scrip bid,...

yes, around 4 years ago from memory.

It was a cash & scrip bid, and the spotless equity component of the bid was viewed very unfavourable (refer to old charts of spotless share price - spotless has been a dog for many years basically). PRG's price had been performing very well up to that stage, at the time they had recently completed a merger with intergrated (labour hire), and a new CEO and executive team where in place, plus spotless weren't offering much of a takeover premium as well. So i guess all of these factors led to a large resistance by management and shareholders to spotless's proposal.

Glad you brought that issue up. I guess that now Spotless has been taken over by private equity, they might consider having a look at Programmed. Usually these Private Equtiy mobs are attracted to companies with low gearing which they can take over at a premium and highly gear the company, then maximise profitability then flog it off to others on high multiples. PRG's gearing was a bit high before the report that just came out, but i was surprised how much it dropped in the last 6 to 12 months which is making it relatively attractive. The current multiple it is trading on is modest, paying over a 5% fully franked dividend, and the management seem to be getting good runs on the board, plus there are exposed to the resource and infrastructure side of the economy which is still doing good as evidenced by PRG's results today.