By Ray Faure

The successful raising of 159 million sterling through a share placing should greatly enhance UK property group Liberty International's chances of inclusion in the FTSE-100 index.

The group, which is listed on both the London Stock Exchange and the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa, was ranked at number 96 on the LSE on the basis of market capitalisation before the placing, but CEO David Fischel believes the highly successful share placing should bump the former South African group up a few notches.

'The placing should improve Liberty International's ranking with a possible outcome of entry into the FTSE-100 Index, which the company considers should have a desirable result of enhancing its profile with the London and international investment communities, and should increase the liquidity of the company's ordinary shares,' Fischel said.

The group, which owns leading U.K. regional shopping centre business Capital Shopping Centres plc and Capital & Counties plc, a long-established commercial and retail property investment and development company, successfully placed 28.43 million new ordinary shares at 560 pence per share, which represents roughly 9.9% of the group's issued share capital before the placing.

Fischel described the successful placing as a 'good endorsement of the quality of the business and our investment case'.

He said the proceeds from the placing would be used to meet existing investment and development programme commitments as well as finance any future projects.

Excluding the Victoria Centre in Nottingham, which the group this week became the sole owner of, through an investment of about 157 million sterling, Liberty International also has other commitments totalling about 500 million sterling.

These include the 85 million sterling extension of the MetroCentre in Gateshead - Britain's largest regional shopping centre - a 275 million sterling commitment to Chapelfield, a regional shopping centre development in Norwich, Norfolk, further development of Braehead in Glascow, and increasing CSC's holding in The Potteries at Stoke-on-Trent from 35% to 50% at a cost of about 32 million sterling.

'Also lurking in the slightly longer term we have two excellent projects in Cardiff and Oxford and these two will obviously also have to be financed,' Fischel said.

The major regional shopping centre projects in Cardiff and Oxford are at various stages of the planning process. The group is also looking at other opportunities, including at Eldon Square in Newcastle.

'We have more than enough on our plate at the moment. It's been a very busy year,' Fischel added.

Earlier this year, the group acquired the Serramonte Shopping Centre in the US West Coast city of San Francisco for $119 million and King's Reach, Southwark, in London for 70 million sterling.

'Despite the turbulent and volatile conditions currently prevailing in the world's financial and securities markets, our chosen sectors in the real estate markets, notably our shopping centre and retail business, which comprise around 90% of the group's total assets, have continued to produce a very sound outcome, demonstrating the exceptional resilience of our prime regional shopping centre assets,' said Liberty International chairman Donald Gordon.