the s form a mixture of s 2 4 2 39 hydroxypropyloxyphenyl 4 39 butylphenyl pyridine 4 g prepared from 2 4 hydroxyphenyl 5 4 butylphenyl pyridine in the same manner as in japanese patent application no 61 133269 1986 dcc 4 g and dmap 0 2 g was dissolved in dichloromethane 50 ml followed by dropwise adding pentanoic acid 1 5 g to the solution agitating the mixture at room temperature for 2 hours filtering off deposited precipitates washing the filtrate with n naoh aqueous solution and then with water until the washing water became neutral distilling off the low boiling substances in the organic layer and recrystallizing the residue from ethanol to obtain the objective compound 3 g this product exhibited chiral smectic phase and the phase transition points were as follows str95 a compound of the formula i wherein r 1 represents str96 r 2 represents ch 2 3 ch 3 and x and y each represent hydrogen atom i e a compound expressed by a structural formula str97 wherein the absolute configuration of the asymmetric carbon atom is in the form of 2 39 s 2 34 s example 6 was repeated except that pentanoic acid used in example 6 was replaced by s 2 butyloxypropionic acid prepared in the same manner as in japanese patent application no sho 61 267206 1986 to obtain the objective compound this product exhibited.