Canaccord has latched onto Bond-mania with the release of Sceptre, the latest film in the long-running franchise, on Monday to repeat its ‘buy’ rating on cinema chain Cineworld (LON;CINE).
But it is the less racy expansion opportunity for the chain in eastern Europe that has got the broker’s juices running.
An analysts’ trip to Romania confirmed the commanding position in a growing market held by Cineworld in a country where there is little competition said the broker.
Subsidiary Cinema City operates 21 of 34 multiplexes in Romania with plans to take it to 40 multiplexes in the next five years.
Cineworld also makes more money per pound of investment in Romania that anywhere else.
The 40 multiplex target is realistic, believes Canaccord, as Romania has a population of 20mln and there are 23 cities with a population of over 100,000.
James Bond and Star Wars excitement meanwhile has led to problems coping with the demand.
Canaccord said Cineworld had confirmed its website had crashed along with its rivals due to the surge of interest, with as many ticket requests for Star Wars in a day as normally come in over three months.
Buy with a 620p target price says the broker.
JP Morgan has just upgraded the the UK non-residential construction market, which are in recovery mode with meaningful opportunities in both the building and infrastructure markets.
Greatest upside lies with Interserve (LON:IRV) (24%), Carillion (LON:CLLN) (16% and upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’), and Kier(LON:KIE) at 14%.
Balfour Beatty (LON:BBY) is fairly priced in the risk/reward of the turnaround strategy.
Jefferies has commented on the Liberty/CWC takeover moves, where the broker sees mostly in CWC's US$8bn tax assets.
On a standalone basis, the price target is 76p but it a merged scenario this rises to 100p.
Jefferies is also keen on hedge fund manager Man (LON:EMC), which gets an upgrade to ‘buy’.
Net flow into lower net fee but more persistent institutional funds should be value creative over time and give Man a higher quality income stream.
The price target is 187p (from 169p).