hmm, I wasnt thinking about the cyclical nature of construction...

hmm, I wasnt thinking about the cyclical nature of construction as opposed to maintenance, which is probably the bigger picture behind the takeover, maintenance and services are more reliable.

A lot of the big contracts (like PPP's) do both, so the cyclical nature of construction will be tempered by the long tail of a maintaining and servicing their construction projects.
The difficulty will be what will happen to all the other work spotless does, what will Downer's plan be for that. Perhaps the Spotless attributed revenue will shrink even fast post acquisition and therefore be worth even less than it currently is. But perhaps they are gambling that its worth a premium for them to escape the cyclical nature of construction.