Eighteen months before possibly the world's biggest party ever, financial analysts have already started thinking about stocks that are likely to benefit from millennium celebrations.
With end-of-the-century revellers likely to be guzzling champagne by the crateful, Lehman Brothers has advised investors to buy shares in French luxury goods group LVMH, owner of prestigious brands such as Moet et Chandon, Dom Perignon and Veuve Cliquot.
Lehman estimates the group's champagne profits in the year 2000 will be double those of three years earlier, helped by a surge in vintage sales and the fact the grape price is fixed until 1999.
And Lehman expects the party to go on far beyond the small hours of January 1st.
"We believe that further volume growth in 2000 as the 1995 vintage comes on stream and new millennium parties continue will cause profits to more than double from their 1997 level - or an increase of two billion francs (£237 million)," said Lehman analyst Mr John Wakeley.
Mr Dermot Carr, analyst at Nikko Europe, also has high hopes for LVMH, which he compared to a vintage wine.
"LVMH ought to be laid down and left to mature," he said in a recent research note.
"The group's continuous investment in its unique portfolio of international luxury brands should ensure that the shares benefit from the millennium and sparkle in the long-term," he said.
Yet if LVMH is a good millennium stock, what about the rest of the drink sector?
"Well, everyone's going to get drunk aren't they?" said one analyst.
Drinks companies such as Remy Cointreau, Allied Domeq, Seagram and Diageo should get an extra kick in the run-up to the historic date, according to Mr Carr.
"Many drinks companies are in the doldrums at the moment, so the millennium will be a life-belt for them," said Mr Wakeley.
Hotels, nightclubs and brewers are also likely to get a piece of the millennium pie, although nothing like the bonanza that champagne sales are set to see.
"I would look at Luminar, Rank, First Leisure, Northern Leisure - that type of nightclub operator might be very interesting," said one analyst who declined to be named.
Analysts see more potential for hotels than brewers, which they say could have difficulty coping with the sheer volumes of alcohol party-goers are likely to demand.
"You would expect a bit of a boost but the problem for a number of brewers is that they don't have the capacity to make a huge uptick in their underlying profitability," said one analyst at Merrill Lynch.
"It will be a one-off benefit that won't really affect the valuations of companies and then you're back with God knows what sort of hangover," he added.
