Posted on March 01, 2015 08:53:00 PM [
BusinessWorld Online ]
By Krista A. M. Montealegre, Senior
Reporter
SM PRIME Holdings, Inc. is on the
lookout for the acquisition of established commercial centers to accelerate the
nationwide expansion of its malls.
SM Prime President Hans T. Sy told
reporters last week SM Megacenter in Cabanatuan is one of the four to five
malls that the Henry Sy-led property holding firm intends to open this year.
Formerly known as Megacenter The Mall,
the commercial center with a gross leasable area of 40,000 square meters was
acquired by SM Prime last year but Mr. Sy declined to provide more details
about the transaction.
“We’re open to buy existing malls and
rebrand it, just like the one in Cabanatuan. Over there, everybody knows it’s
Megacenter. I didn’t really rebrand it… I just put SM,” he said.
SM Prime has a team that is “scouting
around especially those smaller malls” for acquisition or joint venture,” Mr.
Sy said.
“It’s all about location. If the
location is good, big chances we will [acquire it]. It’s not limited on price
alone,” he added.
The acquisition of Megacenter follows
the SM Group’s partnership with the Waltermart Group of Companies, which
operates supermarkets and shopping malls, in 2013.
Besides the launch of the acquired
mall, SM Prime is also opening a new mall in Cabanatuan as well as in San
Mateo, Rizal and Sangandaan, Quezon City this year. The company is hoping to
roll out a shopping center in South Road Properties in Cebu with 430,000 square
meters in floor space available for rent.
“It’s a very big project. It’s
targeted to open by end of November but since it’s a destination mall, I want
to do it very well,” Mr. Sy said of the mall in Cebu.
Likewise, SM Prime is “still trying”
to launch its mall in Tianjin -- which has a gross leasing area of 530,000
square meters -- this year, while the opening of the Conrad Hotel in the Mall
of Asia complex is set before yearend, “but not in time for the [Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit in November].”
By April, SM Prime will unveil the
consolidated master plan for reclamation projects in the cities of Pasay and
Parañaque with a combined size of 600 hectares, Mr. Sy said. The company had
said it would spend over P100 billion for the reclamation and development of
the two huge parcels of land.
Mr. Sy also dared the government to
put up two common stations and let people be the judge. The Transportation
department is planning to construct two common stations near SM Prime’s SM City
North EDSA and Ayala Land, Inc.’s TriNoma mall.
“Technically, makikita ng tao,
maiitindihan ng tao. I would be very assertive. I think if you really look at
the technicalities, common station is really common and there’s no other area
except in that area [near SM City]. We tried to fix everything… If you have a
common [station] where you have to walk for 600 meters, that’s not a common
station,” he said.
SM Prime is “on track” to double
earnings by 2018 in line with a five-year program entailing a capital spending
budget of P400 billion, Mr. Sy said.
The company’s shares fell 2.18% or 44
centavos to close the week at P19.76 apiece.
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