And no, I am not cross promoting here either. Just pointing out...

And no, I am not cross promoting here either. Just pointing out some facts. And it has been done under another SoA too.

I am only trying to bring to the attention of the posters here what difference there are between Boards and Boards where, IMHO, there are some directors which have more interests of their shareholders at heart, than others. But it will be at the discretion of the Moderators to determine if it is allowed to be read, or to be deleted.

And yes, I was invested in Skilled before it was taken over by Programmed as well, taking fully franked special dividends as well as shares, and now after taking shares, the same will happen with programmed. Double whammy.

Yes a very good double whammy for me having been invested in both of these companies for a few years now.

And the premium on the offer, with at least a 68% of the current share price, if not higher,  is not to be laughed at either.

Pity though, that the offer is an all cash offer and not shares for shares where the investors could have had a choice of either collecting their cash, take some  cash and some shares, or just share for shares with the view of continuing holding with the future benefits that it will bring. I know which one I would have chosen if the offer was there.

We will just have to wait now and see if the Board will recommend the SoA, or not.

Read below:


##""(PROGRAMMED TAKEOVER OFFER

HAVING recently wrapped up its takeover of Skilled, Perth-headquartered offshore oil and gas staffing firm Programmed has started the ball rolling to be taken over by major Japanese staffing concern Persol Group for $992 million.

Programmed announced this morning it had entered into a scheme implementation deed with Persol under which the Japanese firm would buy all of its issued share capital for $3.02 per share via a scheme of arrangement.

That is a massive 68% premium on the $1.80 it was trading at this morning, 64% up on its one-month volume weighted average price of $1.84 and 69% on its three-month VWAP of $1.79.

Programmed assured investors and clients this morning that the deal would not impact operations, customers and employees, indicating there may not be job losses often associated with such deals.

The deal also provides a platform for growing its maintenance and facility management operations into Asia, though there is plenty on offer in Australia with some $200 billion worth of LNG projects having moved, or moving, into the operations and maintenance phase.

The Programmed board, which sold down its marine services business to Netherlands-based Atlas Professionals in March, unanimously recommended its shareholders vote in favour of the scheme in the absence of a better deal coming from elsewhere.

Programmed chairman Bruce Brook said the board believed the $3.02 a share offer price showed how much Persol valued Programmed's strategic plan, the capability of its people to deliver it and its strong market positions.

"Persol made it clear that it intends to work with the Programmed management team to support and invest in delivering Programmed's current growth strategy," Brook said.

"The Programmed board believes that Persol will be a well-capitalised, supportive owner of Programmed if the scheme proceeds."

Persol was founded by Yoshiko Shinohara who had the idea of forming such a company when she saw a business providing temporary staff while on a working holiday in Sydney.

Recognising that represented a new business model in the Japanese market, she started the business Temp Staff - the forerunner to Persol - in her one-bedroom Tokyo apartment in 1973.

She remains a significant shareholder in Persol.

Programmed CEO Chris Sutherland said Persol was the ideal fit as it operated across the Asia Pacific region, which was the target for his own company's growth strategy, particularly with recent moves in New Zealand where it has a joint venture with Atlas, and Australia.

However, he said it was also important that Programmed remain an Australian company operating across Australia and New Zealand, employing thousands of those countries' citizens, with its headquarters in Perth.

"Our commitment to the core behaviours that define the Programmed culture will not change, which are personal safety leadership, care and empathy, and good old-fashioned customer service," Sutherland said.)""##