Their reaction to rumours of a takeover and large dealings in SA Retail shares shows why. 

Seven days after Business Day reported talk of a hostile takeover bid for SA Retail, SA Retail and Martprop jointly announced cross-sold shares in each other's prime properties and pre-emptive rights to buy.

It amounts to a poison pill that will gut SA Retail of the properties Hyprop hopes to take over - and exposes a company that doesn't believe shareholders will support it. 

Marriott has an illustrious past as a founder of the listed property sector and still runs the largest unit trusts that invest in property shares. It is an old Natal business, owned by the interests of shipping magnate Murray Grindrod, Mick Hyatt and management.

Hyatt's son-in-law, Simon Pearse, was recently appointed CEO. 

But there have been signs that Marriott has had difficulty adjusting to today's more visceral business life. 

One insider says that protecting its fees had become a recent preoccupation of the group. For instance, against the trend of listed funds to have independent valuations.

Marriott persists in using a related company to do its valuations which influences the asset management fees to Marriott Property Services, which is also the property manager .

Brokers complain that the group tries to keep all possible commission-earning sales in-house, too.  Total earnings from SA Retail in the year to September 2004 were R12, 6m, making it the major beneficiary of the fund. 

Hyprop associate Redefine acquired a 27% stake in SA Retail from institutions disillusioned by Marriott.

Says one of them, Provest MD Angelique de Rauville: "We were unhappy with the cross-shareholdings between SA Retail and Marriott, which they persisted with despite our comments to them." 

Since 2003 Pearse and his economist, Ian Anderson, have been issuing warnings that the listed property sector was overpriced.

Pearse says the warnings were aimed at pensioners who relied on high income: "We didn't say values wouldn't continue rising, but the yields were below their historic trend and we warned them to sit it out." 

But Pearse told Business Day in November 2003: "We are saying that in terms of a five-year expectation, we feel that SA listed property is overvalued." 

However, pensioners who invested in 2003 would have had excellent growth in value and can now look to excellent growth in income. 

Pearse denies that the joint ownership of properties by SA Retail and Martprop protects Marriott rather than shareholders.

"It overcomes complaints from investors about conflict between the two funds over retail investment," he argues. 

He says the FM unfairly presents the predators as being the shareholders' friends , while Marriott has always put its shareholders first.