By Jenniffer
B. Austria | Posted on Mar. 05, 2013 at 12:02am
[
manilastandardtoday.com ]
SM Prime
Holdings Inc., the country’s largest shopping mall operator and developer, said
it will invest P35 billion this year, up 66 percent from P21 billion it spent
in 2012.
SM Prime said
in a filing with the stock exchange it would use the amount to expand of
shopping malls in the Philippines and China. It said the amount would be funded
by internally generated funds and external borrowings.
The mall
operator is scheduled to launch SM Aura Taguig and SM City Cauayan in Isabela
this year. SM Megamall is also being
expanded by an additional 100,000 square meters.
SM Prime said
by end-2013, it would have 48 malls in the country and five in China with a
combined gross floor area of 6.8 million square meters. It had 46 supermalls in the Philippines with
gross floor area of 5.6 million square meters and five supermalls in the
Chinese cities of Xiamen, Jinjiang, Chengdu, Suzhou and Chongquing with gross
floor area of 800,000 square meters at the end of 2012.
Net income of
SM Prime grew 16 percent in 2012 to P10.53 billion from P9.1 billion a year
ago, while consolidated revenues jumped 14 percent to P30.73 billion.
The
better-than-expected 2012 financial result was largely due to rentals from new
malls and robust same-store sales, which went up eight percent.
Net income of
China malls reached P1.1 billion last year, up 24 percent from P890 million in
2011, while profit of Philippine operations grew 15 percent to 9.43 billion
from P8.17 billion in 2011.
Stores in
China contributed P2.54 billion to total revenues due to improvements in the
average occupancy rate and lease renewals.
The average
occupancy rate of five China malls is now at 92 percent.
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