SM Prime earmarks P80B for 2015 expansion projects

MANILA, Philippines–SM Prime Holdings Inc., one of the leading integrated property companies in Southeast Asia, will spend almost P80 billion in 2015 to support its aggressive expansion program.

Under the plan, SM Prime will increase by 12 percent  its mall space in the Philippines and launch five high-rise residential projects with at least 11,000 units. It  will also open an office building on its Mall of Asia Complex property to bring the company’s total office portfolio to five.

The company earmarked 70 percent of its capital expenditure budget for project developments while the rest was allocated for land banking.

“SM Prime’s aggressive expansion programs this year and in the coming years are a testament to management’s confidence that the economic growth of the Philippines will be sustained over the medium term and will eventually have a positive impact on the provinces as growth spreads to these areas. We have increased our budget to over P330 billion in the next four years until 2018, reflecting our solid commitment to support this growth,” SM Prime president Hans T. Sy said.

This year’s mall expansions are geared toward the provincial areas as SM Prime will open SM City San Mateo in Rizal, SM City Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija, and SM Seaside City Cebu. This will be complemented by opening one Metro Manila mall—SM City Sangandaan in Caloocan. It is also expanding existing malls SM City Lipa in Batangas and SM City Iloilo. Combined, these malls will add almost 800,000 square meters of gross floor area. These will increase SM Prime’s total mall space by 12 percent to 7.3 million square meters by the end of 2015.

Of these developments, the biggest is SM Seaside City Cebu, located within the SM Seaside Complex in the South Road Properties (SRP) in Cebu.