SM Prime H1 profit up 16%

Property giant SM Prime Holdings grew its net profit as of June by 16 percent year-on-year to P16.62 billion on higher earnings from its shopping mall, residential and hotel businesses.

Consolidated revenues increased by 15 percent year-on-year to P49.77 billion in the first six months, while overall operating income went up by 16 percent year-on-year to P23.36 billion.

“SM Prime’s expansion projects in various progressive provincial areas in the Philippines, as well as bolstered presence in Metro Manila, allowed the company to maintain double-digit growth in all of our businesses … We believe that synergy among our businesses is key to sustaining our revenue and income growths, while also improving the lives of the communities we serve,” SM Prime president Jeffrey Lim said in a press statement on Monday.

Six-month consolidated mall revenues rose 12 percent to P28.71 billion, accounting for 58 percent of group-wide revenues. Excluding the impact of newly opened and expanded malls, same-mall sales grew by 8 percent year-on-year.

SM Prime operated 77 malls during the period—70 in the Philippines and seven in China. Cinema and event ticket sales were up by 10 percent year-on-year in the first six months to P2.59 billion, boosted by blockbusters “Avengers: Infinity War”, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” and “Deadpool 2”.

SM Prime’s residential group—which accounted for 34 percent of consolidated revenues—grew revenues by 23 percent year-on-year to P17.05 billion, driven by high-rise residential projects in Metro Manila that were launched from 2015 to 2017.

As an indicator of future revenue growth, residential arm SM Development Corp. posted a 25-percent increase in six-month reservation sales to P34.45 billion.

This translated to a 7-percent increase in unit sales to 9,319 units compared to the same period in the previous year.

SM Prime’s other businesses —led by the hotels and convention centers and the commercial properties group, grew six-month revenues by 10 percent year-on-year to P4.11 billion.

The commercial property group currently has nine office buildings with gross floor area of around 481,000 square meters. This second semester, the company will launch ThreeE-Com Center in the Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City, which will add 130,000 square meters of gross floor area.

The hotels and convention center segment has six hotels with more than 1,500 rooms, four convention centers and three trade halls. It will start the expansion of Park Inn—Clark in Pampanga before the end of the year.