None of the top 100 companies in Europe has yet prepared its computer systems for the millennium date change, according to a study made public yesterday. "The magnitude of the task still at hand and the short time to complete it cannot be overestimated," said Mr Richard Kramer, author of the study commissioned by Goldman Sachs.

The study found that 43 out of the 100 biggest European companies had so far conducted a detailed investigation of the implications that the date change could have on their computer systems.

Meanwhile, 15 companies said that the cost of compliance with the date change would reach $100 million.

Programmers predict that the date change will result in chaos for many computerised systems, such as those covering hospital registration, banking activities and food sell-by dates.

"We expect a number of European companies will fail to achieve the Year 2000 compliance and incur substantial exceptional charges," Mr Kramer said.

He said that while awareness of the problem was now increasing, companies had been slow to implement necessary modifications to their software. "Only a handful of companies, primarily in telecoms and finance and more in northern Europe, seem to have the Year 2000 problem under control," Mr Kramer said.