Property giant SM Prime Holdings aims to open four shopping malls with a combined gross floor area of 292,000 sqm in the Philippines this year.
SM Prime ended last year with 60 malls across the country, as well as six malls in China.
President Jeffrey Lim says the company’s focus this year will be on shopping malls and residential space.
SM Prime’s VP for investor relations, Alexander Pomento, says the malls to open this year are SM Tuguegarao (Cagayan Valley), SM Puerto Princesa (Palawan), Cherry SM Antipolo (Rizal) and SM Premier Cagayan de Oro. Their gross floor area would be 40,000 sqm for Tuguegarao, 70,000 sqm for Puerto Princesa, 30,000 sqm for Antipolo and 152,000 sqm for Cagayan de Oro.
Pomento says that about 370,000 people are employed in SM Prime’s 60 shopping malls.
Its latest shopping mall in the Philippines is the 80,000-sqm SM City East Ortigas, which targets customers in the eastern part of Metro Manila.
In the first nine months of last year, SM Prime grew its consolidated net income by 13 per cent year-on-year to P17.5 billion, buoyed by higher shopping-mall, office and residential development plus hotel revenues.
For the third quarter alone, SM Prime’s net profit rose by 15 per cent year-on-year to P4.9 billion, supported by a 14 per cent expansion in revenue to P18.5 billion.
Philippine shopping mall revenue grew by 9 per cent year-on-year to P32.1 billion in the first nine months, while mall rental income expanded by 11 per cent to P26.9 billion.
In the past two years the group has expanded its shopping mall GFA by 1 million sqm.
Meanwhile, mall revenue from China rose by 5 per cent year-on-year to P3.1 billion in the first nine months while operating income grew by 6 per cent to P1.5 billion.
SM has just opened its seventh mall for China in Tianjin.