By Arra B. Francia, Reporter
SM INVESTMENTS Corp. is looking at areas in northern and southern
Luzon for the next stage of expansion of its shopping mall business, a
top official of the Sy-led holding firm said.
“Wala pa kaming northern Luzon, wala pa kaming southern Luzon. Wala pa kaming pababa doon,” SM Chairman Jose T. Sio told reporters after the Sharephil Summit 2018 at Dusit Thani Manila last Friday.
He added that the holding firm of the country’s richest man Henry Sy,
Sr. is also planning to further its presence in Mindanao “at the right
time.”
Even with a target to have 75 malls in the country by the end of
2018, Mr. Sio said the Philippines is not yet saturated with shopping
malls.
The company is opening malls mostly in the provinces in the next
three years, with SM City Urdaneta Central, SM City Telabastagan, SM
City Legaspi, SM City Ormoc and SM City Dagupan set for opening this
year.
In 2019, SM’s property unit SM Prime Holdings, Inc. expects to open
SM Daet, SM Butuan, SM Olongapo Central, SM Balanga Bataan, SM Sorsogon,
SM Tagum, SM City Tuguegarao, SM Mindoro and SM Grand Central in
Caloocan.
SM Prime will also be opening SM City Roxas, SM Calamba Turbina, SM
Tanza, SM San Fernando, La Union, SM Laoag, SM Zamboanga and SM Malolos
in 2020.
This year alone, the listed conglomerate is spending P75-90 billion to finance its expansion.
Mr. Sio said SM is also interested in buying more retailing brands,
as long as they are in a “good location, right time, at the right
price.”
The company currently operates more than 2,000 retail brands, after
folding over a thousand specialty retail store brands into SM Retail,
Inc. such as Ace Hardware, Watsons, Toy Kingdom, and Pet Express in
2016.
Meanwhile, the SM chairman noted the current impacts of technology on
the general business environment, citing that disruptions like
artificial intelligence could hamper sectors like the business process
outsourcing industry in the near future.
“Call centers are not sustainable, they are stagnating. Now they are
no longer signing long-term contracts… they only want to sign (for
building leases) every year,” Mr. Sio said.
Should BPOs weaken in the coming years, Mr. Sio said office buildings can be converted to other uses.
The company has a combined gross floor area of 464,000 square meters
(sq.m.) for its commercial properties group, which it looks to expand by
130,000 sq.m. with the launch of a third office building in the Mall of
Asia complex this year.
SM’s core businesses include property, retail, and banking, with its
portfolio now expanding to Belle Corp., Atlas Consolidated Mining and
Development Corp., CityMall Commercial Centers, Inc., Philippine Urban
Living Solutions, Inc., the Net buildings, and 2Go Group, Inc.
SM’s consolidated net income grew 10% to P8.5 billion in the first
quarter of 2018, boosted by an 11% increase in consolidated revenues to
P95 billion during the period.
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