Swiss bid for Page sends recruiters’ stocks soaring

However, Page whose own shares surged by more than a third, up 891/4p to 3541/2p, on the back of speculation of a bid of between 350p and 375p, indicated that it has no intention of losing its independence again.

In a statement to the Stock Exchange, Page, which returned to the London market in 2001 after four years in American hands, said: "The board of Michael Page continues to believe the company has a very strong future as an independent group."

Page said it was blowing the whistle on Adecco's unsolicited advance, which had been made with "a number of waivable preconditions". Adecco is reckoned to have been stalking Page for months, waiting for the shares to drop as far as the 60% collapse it had chalked up by the end of last month, down from a high of almost exactly a year before the advent of the debt-market crisis.

Analysts said Adecco is eyeing Page's higher-margin white-collar professional business, which brings in annual fees of more than £500 million, to offset Adecco's own low-margin business placing blue-collar workers.

Page has admitted its City business, including banking, financial services, accountancy and legal, is hurting badly. But chief executive Steve Ingham recently reported a 26% growth in group fees on the back of a diversification into IT contractors and sales, marketing and human resources professionals, as well as expanding its Far East and European operations.

"The further you get away from London and the banks the better it is," Ingham told the Evening Standard.

One industry insider said: "Michael Page's management had an unhappy experience in the hands of someone else before. They did not enjoy it then and they would not enjoy it now. Michael Page doesn't buy companies and it doesn't want to be bought."

News of Adecco's approach sent the shares of rival agencies soaring. Robert Walters and Hays, with whom Page crosses swords most often, saw their shares leap by 18% and 15% respectively, while IT specialists SThree and Spring Group sported rises of 11% and 9%.

Page was formed more than 30 years ago by the eponymous Michael Page and his partner Bill McGregor above a launderette in London. In a nascent recruitment market, the firm originally specialised in bringing accountants to the UK from Australia and vice-versa.

Within three years it was the FT's largest advertiser and by 1983 was a founder member of AIM forerunner the Unlisted Securities Market. Page retired in 1996 a year before the firm was bought by Spherion of the US.