Altium Securities said in a note that the £25 million equates to almost 50 per cent of the company's anticipated pretax profit for 2006. It said it expects industrial services to make operating profits of £6.8 million on sales of £170 million this year. The broker noted it could be a one-off hit and Interserve had attempted to cushion the blow by stating the other three divisions were trading ahead of expectations. ABN Amro said in a note: "A 20 per cent write-off to net assets, plus the potential for more, is clearly bad news." Reading-based Interserve does work for the Ministry of Defence, local authorities and firms including Barclays and BT. The group said a programme of internal reviews following an organisational restructuring and board change that it announced on July 20 had revealed the irregularities.