SM opens mall in Ormoc
Property giant SM Prime Holdings made its debut in Eastern Visayas with the opening on Nov. 16 of a shopping mall in Ormoc, Leyte.
The 20,000-square-meter SM Centre Ormoc is the group’s 72nd shopping mall in the Philippines.
“It is SM Prime’s pride and joy to finally open our first mall in the Eastern Visayas region. SM Center Ormoc will be a great addition to the growing local economy of Ormoc City and the continuously developing province of Leyte,” SM Prime president Jeffrey Lim said in a statement.
SM Center Ormoc will open with 85 percent of its space lease-awarded, covering three floors of mixed recreation, service and entertainment facilities.
Anchor locators include SM Supermarket, SM Appliance Center, Watsons, Ace Hardware, Simply Shoes, Surplus, Miniso and Banco De Oro.
SM Prime has so far opened four new malls in the first nine months of the year, namely: SM Center Imus in Cavite, SM City Urdaneta Central in Pangasinan, SM City Telabastagan in Pampanga and SM City Legazpi in Albay. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA
Alliance Select 9-mo net up
International seafood supplier Alliance Select International Inc. saw its net income for the first nine months of the year grew almost six-fold as demand for fish products continued to rise.
In a disclosure to the local bourse, the company reported a year-to-date income of $3.3 million—$30,000 shy of beating its highest recorded annual net income since its inception.
In an e-mail exchange, Alliance Select president and CEO Raymond K.H. See said the company’s strong performance was driven by its core business, manufacturing of tuna products.
“Tuna is a healthier option among other meat products and we see a steady if not an upward demand for canned tuna and salmon products,” he said.
“Internally, we have seen an overall improvement in sourcing, bidding and production which led to a significant increase in export sales volume,” he added.
For the third quarter alone, Alliance Select posted a net sale of $1 million.
It recently launched a new line of artisanal premium canned tuna.
See said the company would focus on generating new sales from the new line.
Alliance Select is a homegrown seafood company operating in General Santos City. It has subsidiaries in Indonesia, New Zealand, and the USA.—KARL OCAMPO
P2.5-B new Mapua campus
The Yuchengco group is investing P2.5 billion in a new Mapua University campus along P. Ocampo Sr. Avenue, formerly Vito Cruz Ext., on the border of Makati and Manila.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday, iPeople Inc. said its subsidiary, Malayan Education Systems Inc., would develop a new a campus for Mapua.
Malayan, operating under the name of Mapua University, has finalized the purchase of a 5,114-square-meter property along P. Ocampo.
Mapua is one of the country’s leading engineering and technical universities.
Previously, the Yuchengco and Ayala groups had agreed to combine P15.5 billion worth of assets in the academia to create an educational powerhouse under iPeople.
After the merger, holding firm iPeople will be 51.3 percent-owned by the Yuchengco group through House of Investments (HI) while Ayala Corp.’s education arm AC Education Inc. will own 33.5 percent. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA
Alsons profit down 28%
Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. posted a 28-percent drop in its net income for the first nine months of 2018 to P197.4 million due to higher costs and finance charges.
Even then, ACR chief finance officer Robert F. Yenko in a statement expressed optimism about future growth prospects, noting that three major projects would be coming online starting next year.
Beyond that, ACR plans to pursue additional run-of-river hydroelectric power projects in Negros Occidental, Sarangani, Davao Oriental, Zamboanga del Norte, the Agusan provinces, and Surigao del Sur—with total capacity potential of over 145 megawatts.
From January to September, ACR revenue also decreased by 3.6 percent year-on-year to settle at P5.03 billion from P5.22 billion.
This was attributed to the company’s realignment of some of its diesel assets to serve markets outside of Mindanao. —RONNEL W. DOMINGO
DMCI order book up to P26.3B
The construction arm of conglomerate DMCI Holdings posted an 8-percent year-on-year growth in order book to P26.3 billion in the first nine months, driven mostly by high-rise projects by the private sector.
Building projects of DM Consunji Inc. accounted for most of the order book at P12 billion, closely followed by infrastructure projects at P11.9 billion. Contracts for plant and utilities breached P2.5 billion while energy projects reached P2.1 billion.
Among the newly signed projects of DMCI are: Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 Nagtahan Rampway, Connor of Ortigas & Co., the STRC Apartment Ridge of ST 6747 Resources Corp. which is building a luxury residential development on Ayala Avenue and the expansion projects of JG Summit Petrochemical Corp. and DLS-College of St. Benilde’s academic, sports and dormitory buildings.
“Right now our order book is skewed toward private sector-led construction projects but we expect more big-ticket projects under the “Build, Build, Build” program to come on-stream within the next few months,” said DMCI president and CEO Jorge Consunji.
DM Consunji recorded a stand-alone net income of P1.1 billion from January to September, up 21-percent from P896 million a year ago.
For the third quarter alone, stand-alone net rose by 19 percent year-on-year to P343 million. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA