The Queen's "annus horribilis" as a dot.com investor took a turn for the worse yesterday after shares in the fledgling internet firm she has backed slumped a further 42%.

Shares in aerial photography specialist Getmapping.com fell 11.5p to an all-time low of 15.5p. They have dropped 94% from the high of 237.5p they touched shortly after floating last year.

The Queen has a 1.5% stake in the firm. At one stage her investment was worth more than £900,000 but last night it was valued at just £67,000. However, she is still making a paper profit. She paid £50,000 for the shares when Getmapping was a private company.

Dealers blamed yesterday's fall on a shareholder offloading a large line of stock.

Getmapping is compiling an aerial photography map of Britain which it aims to sell over the internet to estate agents, civil engineers and local authorities, as well as private individuals.

Its share price has fallen in line with those of many other dot.coms and it has said it that sales have been disappointing.

The company's stockbroker, Peel Hunt, predicts that loss-making Getmapping has enough cash to get it through 2001 but after that it will be relying on an overdraft to take it through to profitability. "This is quite a long-term story," said analyst Peter Joseph. "It's only selling a tiny number of maps over the web to private individuals but it shouldn't have to raise more money before it hits breakeven."

He estimated that Getmapping had about £2.7m cash in the bank at the end of December and would report a loss of about £2.5m when it publishes results for 2000.

Sales of a Doomsday millennium map dedicated to the Queen - the product that attracted her to the firm - have been particularly poor.