Suppose that a finite group G admits an automorphism ϕ of order 2 n such that the fixed-point subgroup C G (ϕ 2 n−1 ) of the involution ϕ 2 n−1 is nilpotent of class c. Let m = |C G (ϕ)| be the number of fixed points of ϕ. It is proved that G has a characteristic soluble subgroup of derived length bounded in terms of n, c whose index is bounded in terms of m, n, c. A similar result is also proved for Lie rings.1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 20D45; secondary 17B40, 20F40, 20F50.