Liberty International, the UK property giant founded by SA insurance tycoon Donald Gordon, has surprised the market by venturing into India.

The move gives SA investors, who own the majority of Liberty International (Libint) shares, an entry into this southern Asian giant's fast-growing property market. Libint is listed on the London Stock Exchange and the JSE.

Libint has taken a 25% share with local developer Provogue in a joint venture, Prozon-Liberty. The venture will initially build six super-regional shopping centres of up to 100 000 m? - about the size of Sandton City. Libint's initial equity investment will be about #25m, or R340m.

This is small beer for a FTSE 100 company with property assets of R95bn. It also seems to break with Libint's self-imposed strategy of providing investors with steady but above-trend growth in income from top-quality UK properties. That's why CEO David Fischel has said Libint will not move into SA.

But he has also said: "Never let your strategy interfere with a good deal." And the move to India is probably only that - a chance to make a return through early entry into India's market and trading out when the opportunity comes for a fat profit.

Financial Mail