A snip at pounds 1,000.Now, what's on TV tonight?Achtung! Feuer! A fire on the roof of the Bundesbank building in Frankfurt yesterday caused "some material damage but no casualties," firemen said.Workmen were using bitumen to re-cover bits of the Bundesbank's roof, and a "technical defect" in the bitumen cauldron sent plumes of black smoke wafting across the Frankfurt skyline.No doubt neighbouring bankers wondered whether this was some equivalent to Papal white smoke The financial markets are after all on tenterhooks. Designed for people who work at home, it looks like an ordinary wooden cabinet on the outside, but when you open up the front a desk, shelves and drawers emerge to produce the perfect work station. Customers will be able to slump stupefied in front of the box for even longer periods. (I've already got my order in.)Parker Knoll already has one new product for launch this summer, the "Cab-i-net". Mainly, however, the market has simply started to jib at paying 18-times prospective earnings, even for a company with such an excellent track record. Fair enough in the short term but this is a good long-term hold.. Your grandparents may very well have a Parker Knoll recliner - the comfy chair with a footrest that swings upwards when you lean back.

Now, if you have any couch potato tendencies at all, it could be your turn. Parker Knoll's new young, thrusting chief executive, James Moore, 36, has been brought in specifically to re-upholster the family firm. The most exciting new project on the blocks for the furniture and fabric company is a new reclining chair for TV watchers, with a holder for drinks on one arm and for the video remote on the other. The market for out-sourced services is growing as companies and the public sector concentrate on their core activities. Mitie is gaining critical mass and it has enormous scope to grow market share, to spread into new regions and to add new services.Mitie's shares have faltered recently, coming back from a peak of 415p last month in line with a jittery market, and possibly reflecting concerns over a minimum wage which, if introduced by an incoming Labour government, could increase costs noticeably. Engineering accounts for 40 per cent of sales, as does cleaning, with painting chipping in another 20 per cent.It hardly sounds glamorous work, but the contracts Mitie signs its customers up to are typically long (between one and five years) and so predictable, the company ties up little capital (hence its great return) and is highly cash generative.Sales, which have grown from about pounds 10m in 1989 to more than pounds 160m last year, are set to continue growing for three main reasons.

But with the interest and royalty payments looming the shares - down 7p to 164p - still look unattractive.Mitie keeps on growingMitie is the growth stock par excellence. Yesterday's 38 per cent jump in pre-tax profits for the year to March from pounds 4.6m to pounds 6.3m was the seventh successive rise of more than 30 per cent, confirming that the cleaning, engineering and painting services company's remarkable growth story remains intact.After a 33 per cent rise in earnings per share to 16.2p, the dividend was increased by a similar margin, but still remained four-times covered at 4p (3p).Mitie provides a range of services to property owners, whether in the private sector, such as BT, IBM and British Aerospace, all big clients, or government departments such as the Treasury, which buys engineering maintenance from the company. According to Nigel Reed of Paribas, the current value of Euro Disney shares might be just Ffr3, even assuming it can increase revenue by 30 per cent over the next four years.Analysts are forecasting full-year profits of Ffr184m. Euro Disney's revenue was increased dramatically from last summer when it introduced the new Space Mountain ride. The third-quarter year-on-year comparison is still benefiting from the new ride but that will drop out of the figures soon and some analysts are expecting only a flat performance in the final quarter.In addition, the company is still benefiting from graduated interest payments and a holiday on management fees and royalty payments until 1999- 2000. The company needs to go some if it is to reach break-even by the time it returns to full payments.The company says it plans new attractions, such as a Planet Hollywood restaurant, a new cinema and a shopping mall, which will attract more visitors.

Admissions are on an upward trend with hotel occupancy encouraging, even though no fresh figures have been released.But Euro Disney is faced with a difficult French economy, with high unemployment and a strong franc, which makes the park expensive for visitors from countries such as Britain and Italy. All this means that in the nine months the company cut net losses to Ffr22m, compared with Ffr71m in the same period last year.But there is more to these figures than meets the eye. In addition, operating revenue from the park and hotels edged 4.5 per cent higher over the quarter to Ffr1.4bn. Compared to a forecast growth rate in low double digits that leaves no scope for further growth in the short run.An illusion at Euro DisneyIn the Magic Kingdom of Euro Disney nothing is ever quite what it seems. And so it is with the debt-laden theme park's latest set of results. At first glance the results look encouraging and appear to show that last year's 20 per cent price cut really is enticing more punters through the gates.Though net profits in the three months to June fell from last year's Ffr170m (pounds 21.8m) to Ffr147m, the previous year's figure was inflated by Ffr79m of exceptional items. With full-year forecasts of just over pounds 1.5bn receiving only minor upgrades yesterday, the shares stand on a prospective p/e ratio of 19.