Published on 03 November 2012 [
manilatimes.net ]
Written by Madelaine B. Miraflor Reporter
SM Investment Corp. (SMIC) will build
one mall per year in China, and three to six malls in the Philippines starting
this year, which will solidify its position as the largest mall developer in
the country.
“In 2012, we will build one mall per
year in China because we don’t want to overdo ourselves,” said Cora Guidote,
SMIC investor relations senior vice president, in a recently held COL Financial
briefing.
She said that SM malls in China are
very profitable and have contributed 9 percent to SMIC’s profits.
“We are also going to open biggest
mall in China and it is approximately 542,000 square meters [in space],”
Guidote added.
She explained that another three malls
will be built in China in the coming years and these will be located in
Chongging, which will be built in December; Zibo, which is set to open around
2014; and Tianjin, which will be considered the largest SM mall and may be
launched at around 2014 as well.
In the Philippines, Guidote said that SM
is eyeing more areas where they could do expansion, especially in the Visayas
and Mindanao.
“We are trying to expand as fast as we
can and we will try to build three to six malls a year,” she said.
“In terms of debt ratios, we are very
conservative so we don’t want to go beyond 50 percent,” Guidote added.
SMIC, according to Guidote, is also
seeing growth opportunities in the Visayas and Mindanao, and they will most
likely build malls there in the future.
There are currently 46 SM malls all
over the country.
“The malls did very well than
expected,” she added.
In September, SMIC said that it will
launch six additional malls in China in the next three to four years, which
will bring to 10 the total number of SM malls in that country. The company
currently has four malls in China.
Its malls in China posted a
substantial 30-percent increase in revenues to P1.3 billion in the first half
of the year, and contributed 9 percent to SMIC’s consolidated revenues.
Guidote also noted that SMIC is seeing
immense opportunities for growth in the Philippines, which is why they are
going to invest more in different sectors in the future.
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