GardaWorld's aggressive tactics won't win over G4S shareholders to its takeover bid. Only more money will do that.

And that’s before it starts on the yawning pension deficit.

It’s hard to argue with much of the criticism — G4S shares were falling long before Covid, thanks in part to selling its cash delivery arm for half the price it rejected seven years earlier.

Its cash flow struggles to keep up its pension payments, and there are big, troubling, “one-off” costs every year (as if the prisoner tagging scandal wasn't enough).

For laughs, Garda’s pitch includes a table on the options being presented by G4S to its shareholders. It has three columns: the past (£1 billion of value destruction), the present (Garda’s 190p a share bid) and the future (a large pot of jam).

The problem with Garda’s whole presentation lies in the middle column. Shareholders will not accept 190p, and Garda knows it. At that price, the bid only values G4S at 12 times its current Covid-afflicted profits, which is pretty much where the shares have been trading for years.

Garda should offer considerably more than 210p. Then it will get a friendlier hearing.