Chief executive Paul Hamer confirmed that turnover was likely to drop in the short-term and said he could not rule out further redundancies.

WYG shed around 800 jobs earlier this year as it struggled to comply with banking covenants (NCE 2 July).

Last week the firm confirmed that it is to stop trading its shares on the London Stock Exchange as it was undertaking a debt-for-equity swap that will make banks its majority shareholders. The firm has debts of up to £100M and made a loss of £123.7M in the last financial year after accounting for £141M of exceptional items.

“Banks will be the largest shareholder.”

Paul Hamer, WYG

The proposed refinancing agreement will result in WYG’s banks exchanging approximately £50M of debt for a 60.5% share in the company.

Remaining shares will then be traded on the AIM market. A new employee trust will own 24.5% of the remaining shares and existing shareholders 15%. “Banks will be the largest shareholder,” WYG chief executive Paul Hamer told NCE.

“They have bought into the management team and our strategy. The WYG board will still be making strategy,” he said, adding that an investor director will sit on the board, representing the investors’ interests. This role will initially be held by non-executive chairman Mike McTighe.

“In the last few months, we have seen some heavy restructuring,” said Hamer.

“We are a large company and we want to tighten our focus. We want to do less but do it better.”

Paul Hamer, WYG

“We are a large company and we want to tighten our focus. We want to do less but do it better, shifting focus away from some markets while focusing on other markets aggressively. It is likely we will get smaller.

“Our revenue is likely to remain flat or drop slightly in the short-term and improve going forward.”

WYG announced a modest pre-tax profit £12M in its annual results, before exceptional costs of £141M.

Around half of the £141M relates to the writing off of goodwill relating to acquisitions.

Around £20.5M was to cover bad debts, unpaid bills and professional indemnity claims. A further £20M went on the closure of offices on which the lease still had to be paid and £9M was spent on redundancies.

“We have cleared legacy issues and are getting into a good shape going forward,” said Wilton. Transferring the company listing from the London Stock Exchange to AIM is still subject to shareholder approval.

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