All is clearly not well at engineering consultant White Young Green.

It took the City by surprise today by bringing forward its half-year results from Friday at the eleventh hour. If there's one thing the market hates even more than bad news it's "sudden" news.

Combine that with the fact it also flagged a potential covenant breach and the result was that a third of its market cap was promptly wiped out. Compare a share price of 31p to £4.65 this time last year.

It also wiped £8m from its books after admitting it wasn't going to recover certain sums it was owed.

And some also have argued that it's carrying an awful lot of goodwill after the acquisition of AKT last year - which at £10.5m was not exactly seen as the bargain of the century. Will further writedowns have to follow?

It all adds up to a bit of a mess for recently appointed MD Paul Hamer and it will be interesting to hear what he has in store for the company.

The group has already rebuffed the advances of one possible suitor - understood to have been Dutch giant Arcadis.

Today it looks more vulnerable than ever. With fellow countryman Grontmij also understood to be keeping a keen eye on the UK consultancy sector, maybe Hamer will need to start brushing up on his Dutch.

"Nee bedankt" means "no thanks" by the way, Paul.