The president and chief executive of Baltimore Technologies, Mr Fran Rooney, has indicated that the company's financial results, due out next week, may show a revenue increase of up to 45 per cent on the previous quarter.

At a luncheon of the Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants, Mr Rooney said analysts had predicted the company's full-year results would show revenue up by 40-45 per cent on the last quarter, and by 300 per cent on last year.

Baltimore, which provides online security and verification software, has recently seen its share price tumble along with the rest of the technology sector. Yesterday the company's shares stood at £3.09 sterling, down from a year high of £15 sterling.

Mr Rooney said that while the firm's shares had taken a sharp fall, it was "not outside the band for technology stocks". He said its stock had doubled in value over the last 14-15 months.

Addressing fears that spending on online security would stop because of a possible recession in the US, Mr Rooney said he expected only that there would be a short-term downturn in spending for the first and second quarters of this year. He said recent research had indicated that expenditure would increase towards the end of the year.

The company builds systems that manage electronic authentication for e-commerce as well as user authorisation to access online systems. It recently upgraded its Mimesweeper product, which protects corporate networks from computer viruses and malicious programs by combing and filtering all content coming from emails and websites.

Baltimore, established in Ireland in 1976 but bought out by Mr Rooney and private investors in 1996, now employs 1,200 people around the world.