The firm employed approximately 4,200 people across the UK, Europe, Germany, Middle East, Asia and Australia and had been listed on the London Stock Exchange since October 2002.

Hyder was formed in 1993 when engineering firms Acer Group and Wallace Evans Ltd were acquired by Welsh Water and subsequently merged.

[2] Acer Group was itself an internationally recognised consultancy practice formed in 1987 by the merger of John Taylor and Sons (established 1739) and Freeman Fox and Partners (established 1857), and joined in 1991 by Sir Bruce White, Wolfe Barry, and Partners.

[4] Freeman Fox and Partners had been involved in Melbourne's West Gate Bridge disaster in 1970.

Thirty-five construction workers were killed and 18 injured in the collapse, and it remains Australia's worst industrial accident to this day.