A "misallocation" of approximately 1m of costs relating to the integration of the Access Plus business, acquired in November 2003, and the implementation of a group-wide financial reporting system means that the group expects restated EBITA (earnings before interest, tax and goodwill amortisation) to be 3.5m, not the 4.5m reported.

Furthermore, given that current year budgets were based on inaccurate base data and that summer trading in its data division has been "particularly difficult", it has revised down its expectations for the current year. EBITA in the year ending 31 December 2005 is expected to be about 50% of the restated 2004 figure.

The error came to light following a detailed review of the group's financial systems, procedures and budgets by new chief financial officer Richard Hodgson, who was appointed in July.

Chief executive Jason Cromack said that despite the disappointment of the announcement the group was still performing against its operational benchmarks and was in its "highest level of pitching ever".

"Unfortunately things went wrong on that financial integration but at the end of the day contract revenues are up versus last year. Our revenues are far more stable now," he said.

"We have got to put this into perspective: we are still generating profit."

The group's shares tumbled 44% to 10p earlier this year when it announced this year's profits would be lower than they were the year before. Shares have since been trading at around 7p but fell to 5.63p on the back of the latest announcement, which was made on Monday (26 September).

TripleArc's interim results will be announced tomorrow (30 September).

TripleArc Timeline
- 2000: TripleArc founded
- December 2001: Floats on AIM
- September 2002: Acquires ControlP
- November 2003: Acquires Access Plus
- January 2005: Acquires HFS Projects, StreamGWC parent
- June 2005: Warns 05 profits will be lower than '04
- September 2005: Restates '04 accounts