Pinewood hopes to be stirred as well as shaken up

Outlook

Prime Minister Harold Wilson (left) with Roger Moore and Barbara Bach on the James Bond set at Pinewood in 1976 (Getty)

The force is strong in Pinewood. The Star Wars studio has been doing well, but it needs more than a Jedi mind trick to get a full listing on the London Stock Exchange. It needs a free float of 25 per cent, and with three big shareholders dominating the register, it doesn’t have that.

Hence the launch of a “strategic review” with the smart money on a sale. A restructuring of its capital is one option, it’s true. But Pinewood is a rather rare beast: a trophy asset that actually makes money. And the outlook is balmy, with filming soon due to start on The Collection, Amazon’s first UK production, at its Cardiff studios and a handy looking pipeline in addition to its status as the favoured venue for the Bond movies.

Rothschild has been hired to help with the work, and with the contacts the bank has, it shouldn’t be too hard to shake out and then stir up a bidder willing to pay over the odds.