Geneva  - Swiss staffing company Adecco announced Tuesday it plans to buy the rival MPS Group in order to expand its presence in the United States, Canada and Britain.

If stockholders agree, the purchase would be for 13.80 dollars per share, a 24 percent premium over MPS's closing price. The MPS board has unanimously approved the offer, the Florida-based company said in a separate statement.

The total deal would be worth about 1.3 billion dollars.

Adecco, already the largest staffing company in the world, said the acquisition would strengthen its higher margin business.

In 2008, MPS generated revenues of about 2.24 billion dollars.

Meanwhile, Adecco, based in Zurich, said it was issuing 900 million Swiss francs (890.8 million dollars) of mandatory convertible bonds.

Also, the Swiss company said that "over the course of the third quarter market conditions improved." It was set to announce results on November 5. (dpa)