Mall of Asia in the South to rise in Cebu

MANILA, Philippines - SM Prime Holdings Inc., the country’s largest mall developer and operator, is spending P5 billion for its second lifestyle mall dubbed Mall of Asia in the South.

Fresh from opening the P3.5-billion SM Aura Premier lifestyle mall, SM Prime of retail tycoon Henry Sy said they will complete the construction of another upscale mall, this time in Cebu, by 2015.

“I think right now Cebu will be the next one [with a lifestyle mall],” said SM Prime executive vice-president and chief finance officer Jeffrey Lim.

“(Cebu) is a progressive and developed city already. At the same time, we have a big property there, which is half the size of the Mall of Asia,” Lim said.

Parent firm SM Investments Corp. is developing the 30-hectare South Road Properties project that was reclaimed and then sold by the Cebu City government.

Lim said the mixed-use development would entail an investment of P20-25 billion to cover the construction of a shopping mall, a convention center, residential condominiums, and a hotel.

“We are already building a shopping center there, a premium mall which is almost 400,000 square meters (sqm),” Lim said.

Last week, SM Prime opened SM Aura Premier, marking the entry of the SM conglomerate in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig which is being groomed as the country’s next financial capital.

SM Aura Premier, which has a gross floor area (GFA) of 234,892 sqm, is SM Prime’s 47th mall in the Philippines with a combined GFA of 5.9 million sqm.

For the rest of the year, SM Prime is scheduled to launch SM Cauayan in Isabela and open Building D of SM Megamall in Pasig City.

By the end of this year, SM Prime will have 48 malls in the Philippines and five in China with an estimated combined GFA of 6.9 million sqm.

SM Prime allotted P88 billion in capital expenditures to build new shopping malls here and abroad until 2015.

In the first quarter, the country’s largest mall builder posted a 15-percent growth in profits to P2.79 billion, backed by an 11-percent jump in revenues to P7.83 billion due to robust consumer spending.

In February, SMIC announced that it is studying the consolidation of its mall and property development businesses to create a real estate behemoth that could topple property giant Ayala Land Inc.

The Sy family conducts its property businesses through residential builder SM Development Corp., property development arm SM Land Corp., and SM Prime.