SM Prime Holdings Inc., the shopping mall operator led by the Sy family, said it is spending a total of P88 billion in two years to build four new malls in the Philippines and expand its malls in China.
SM Prime President Jeffrey C. Lim said the company will spend P8 billion spread over two years, mainly for the construction of a new mall in Yangzhou and the expansion of its existing shopping mall in Xiamen.
The Yangzhou mall, its eighth in the world’s second-largest economy, is about 80,000 square meters in terms of gross leasable area, while the expansion of Xiamen mall entails 60,000 sq.m. to 70,000 sq.m. from its current size of 300,000 sq.m. Both will start construction this year.
Lim said the company will spend P4 billion each for the Yangzhou mall and the expansion of the mall in Xiamen.
“The Yangzhou land was with us for close to three years now. But we were focused on doing a lot of things in the Philippines,” he said.
“There are two expansions in Xiamen. We will start this year, but we’ll open latter part of next year or 2021,” he said. With the said development, SM will have over a million square meters of shopping mall in China in two years, Lim said.
In the country, SM Prime said it is spending P80 billion as its capital expenditure this year, mainly for its land banking efforts and various expansion plans in key cities in the Philippines, including building four new malls.
“The year 2019 marks another era for SM Prime as we celebrate our 25th year of being a publicly listed company in the Philippines. Moving forward, we will continue to deliver world-class products to our communities which will also translate into sustainable growth for our shareholders,” Lim said.
SM Prime is set to expand its footprint in the Philippines with four new malls this year, it said. These malls will add 200,000 sq.m. of gross floor area and will be located in developing provincial cities in Dagupan, Pangasinan; Olongapo, Zambales; Butuan and Zamboanga.
Residential arm SM Development Corp. targets to launch around 15,000 to 20,000 residential units this year. These units will be composed of mixed high-rise and mid-rise buildings, as well as single-detached house-and-lot projects to address the growing demand among local and foreign buyers.
Among its other businesses, SM Prime is scheduled to launch this year the NU Tower, its first university-office building in the Mall of Asia Complex, and a new hotel in Iloilo (the Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo) and the Park Inn by Radisson in North Edsa.
Following the NU Tower, the Mall of Asia Complex will soon house the three-tower Four E-Com Center and the first Ikea store in the Philippines in 2020.
New developments will rise soon beside SM City Clark and Park Inn by Radisson Clark where the company will add SMX Clark, a grand terminal, additional retail spaces, and more offices to serve the growing demand in the area, it said.