SM Prime reports P6.4 B profit for first 9 months

MANILA, Philippines—The country’s largest shopping mall developer, SM Prime Holdings, grew its net profit in the first nine months by 14 percent to P6.41 billion from a year ago as tycoon Henry Sy further expanded his retail space and unlocked more rental revenues from older malls.

For the third quarter alone, SM Prime posted a 15 percent rise in net income to P2.14 billion from a year ago, the company disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday.

“The notable results delivered by SM Prime so far this year give us greater confidence in attaining our full-year target for both the Philippines and China, especially since we are moving towards the holiday season. We will continue to offer good value products and services to our customers, and improve on areas that will give an even more enhanced shopping and entertainment experience to them,” SM Prime president Hans Sy said.

Consolidated nine-month revenues grew by 13 percent to P19.27 billion from a year ago while cash flow as measured by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the same period rose by 13 percent to P13.02 billion, for an EBITDA margin of 68 percent.

Revenues from July to September this year reached P6.56 billion, up by 15 percent from a year ago while EBITDA for the quarter likewise rose by 14 percent to P4.34 billion.

The company said these results may be attributed to last year’s expansion, which added 289,000 square meters  in net leasable space. The four new SM malls that opened last year were SM City Calamba, SM City Novaliches, SM City Tarlac, and SM City San Pablo.

Even excluding rentals from new malls, same-store rental grew by 7 percent during the period.

For the first nine months, SM Prime’s consolidated rental revenues contributed 85 percent to total turnout and grew by 15 percent year-on-year to P16.45 billion. The increase came from both new space and existing store rental growth.

Cinema ticket sales amounted to P2.07 billion compared to P2.04 billion during the same period last year due to major blockbusters shown during the period such as “Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon”, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow 2”, “Kung Fu Panda 2”, “Thor”, and “Pirates of the Caribbean 4.”