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Paul Hamer, the chief executive of WYG, has said the consulting engineer is in the final stages of a review that will result in it abandoning or changing up to a quarter of its operations.

The 鈥渓ong overdue鈥� review, which Hamer will unveil in the summer, follows the refinancing of its 拢100m debt pile, which shareholders voted through last week. Hamer, who took over at the 拢262m-turnover firm last February, said the changes were the next stage in its recovery plan, now it was on a sounder financial footing. Last October it posted a pre-tax loss of 拢129m.

He said: 鈥淲e鈥檝e held up all parts of the business to the mirror to see how strong they are. The result is a hierarchy of priorities. In future we鈥檒l do 25% in a different way or not at all.鈥�

He declined to reveal which areas would be affected but said the top priorities were planning, transport, energy, sustainability, water and waste.

But he said WYG would not become an infrastructure specialist. He said: 鈥淚鈥檓 nervous about that sort of single identity. We鈥檙e comfortable as a multidisciplinary firm.鈥�

Asked how the firm would change, Hamer said: 鈥淲e will do more higher up the value chain. We want to sit alongside the client to manage the design rather than get involved in detailed structural engineering work offloaded by a contractor.鈥�

He also said WYG would alter its overseas growth model by focusing on hubs rather than single countries. 鈥淲e recently won work in Bosnia and Croatia on the back of a job in Serbia.鈥�