Guy Hands, the new owner of EMI, has delayed recruiting a chief executive for the beleaguered music major until the summer as he grapples with a massive restructuring that will see the company lay off one in three of the workforce.

The venture capitalist, whose Terra Firma group bought EMI last year, also said that he was confident of repairing relations with key acts - and denied that there had been any falling out with Robbie Williams.

Mr Hands, who has installed himself as chairman of EMI, had hoped that he could unveil a chief executive as early as this month, but yesterday he said that he wanted to wait and appoint a leader to develop the business after the cost-cutting.

“There's a job to be done restructuring the company,” Mr Hands said. “Then we need a visionary chief executive to take the company forward. That is a different task.”

Mr Hands conceded that he had been searching for a chief executive and indicated that he had been looking for people with a “consumer focus and digital background” and with “a sense of commitment to and belief in the creative process”.

Mr Hands was speaking publicly for the first time about plans to revive the British company behind the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Robbie Williams and Coldplay. He confirmed that EMI would make between 1,500 and 2,000 staff redundant at an estimated cost of £40million. The move is intended to save at least £200 million a year, or as much as £100,000 per employee. EMI has about 6,000 staff - 2,000 more than the similarly sized Warner Music.

Concerns about the level of redundancies and last week's departure of Tony Wadsworth, the veteran EMI UK chief, led Williams's manager to say that the performer was refusing to record a new album amid accusations that Mr Hands did not understand the music business.

Mr Hands said yesterday that “we don't have an issue with Robbie Williams. What has happened is that his manager has made a number of statements, but Robbie has not.

“Robbie has spent a large number of years working full-time and he wants to take 2008 quietly. We do not have a need to push Robbie Williams into making an album.” Tim Clark, Williams's manager, declined to comment.

Threats from other artists were also dismissed. The Verve, who it had been suggested were unhappy, are understood to have signed a new contract with EMI towards the end of last year, although Mr Hands suffered a setback when he failed to persuade Radiohead to sign a new deal after a row about money.

Terra Firma has sent in about 50 people to work for EMI to rationalise the company, which is losing market share in an industry that is itself in decline as CD sales plummet and digital downloads fail to make up the shortfall. However, Terra Firma's plan to deal with the changing environment was light on detail and consisted primarily of an emphasis on stripping out staff from its roster of labels. The labels will lose their traditional responsibility for sales and marketing, leaving them to concentrate on finding and managing artists. Mr Hands said that only one in twenty employees at a typical label directly handled the company's acts. Terra Firma will introduce a “music services” division run by Mike Clasper.

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