SM Prime steps upt China expansion

MANILA, Philippines - SM Prime Holdings Inc., the umbrella property firm of Henry Sy’s SM Group, is looking to aggressively expand in the world’s second largest economy this year and next through the establishment of more malls.

Jeffrey C. Lim, chief finance officer of SM Prime, said the company would open two new malls in China this year while the construction of two more will start  next year.

SM Zibo, which soft-opened late last year, is slated for a grand launch by March or April, Lim said.

“It was just the department store and the supermarket which opened. It’s more of just a testing,” he said.

Lim said SM Tianjin, meanwhile, would open towards the end of the year. SM Tianjin is expected to be the Sy family’s largest shopping center once it opens.

SM Prime has five existing SM shopping malls in China: Chongqing, Xiamen, Jinjiang, Chengdu and Suzhou.

Aside from the five existing malls and the two that will open this year, Lim said SM Prime would also be starting development of two more China malls starting next year.

“We actually have two locations already in Jiangsu province so we will develop that for 2016, 2017,” Lim said.

In the Philippines, SM Prime has 50 malls, three of which are listed among the world’s 10 largest malls.

For this year, Lim earlier said about four new malls will open locally which would include SM Cebu and SM Cabanatuan.

Over the long term, SM Prime said it intends to grow its malls to 85 (74 in the Philippines and 11 in China) with a gross floor area of 6.95 million square meters (sqm) in 2018.