MANILA -The SM group is planning to build two more malls in the Philippines this year as part of its local expansion, as well as another one in China, as it aims to get a bigger market share in Asia’s largest economy.
Steven Tan, the president of the Shopping Center Management Corp., the mall management unit of SM Prime Holdings Inc., said on Thursday of last week that they are set to open new malls in Sto. Tomas, Batangas, and San Pedro, Laguna, during the latter part of the year.
He added that they are also looking to open five more next year in other parts of the country.
“There are still a lot of untapped markets which we are not yet in—the likes of Ilocos. We are opening Laoag, we are opening La Union,” Tan told reporters on the sidelines of the Philippine Retailers Association’s 2023 Awards Night for Outstanding Filipino Retailers.
“We also try to look into the area where we are and try to localize our operations, meaning for example in La Union, since the youth call it ‘Elyu,’ so we will do it differently in terms of architecture, in terms of tenancy mix,” he added.
Aside from this local expansion, the SM executive said they will also open another SM Mall in China, particularly in Yangzhou City located at the central Jiangsu province in the eastern part of the country, adding that they already have eight other malls in the East Asian country.
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“The Philippines is the sweet spot of Asia, I would say because of our population, our demographics is very young, the median age is very young. So, there is a lot of potential. A lot of the brands are looking to our country,” said Tan.
The Sy-led integrated property developer ended 2022 with 82 malls across the Philippines, boosting its profits during the year by more than a third.
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In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange back in February, SM Prime Holdings Inc. said profits in 2022 soared to P30.1 billion as shopping mall revenues doubled after businesses and shoppers moved on from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The company said profits were up 38 percent for the year while total revenues jumped 29 percent to P105.8 billion, according to the same filing. INQ