SM Prime posts P15.5-B profit in 9 months

MANILA, Philippines - Integrated property developer SM Prime Holdings Inc. reported a net income of P15.5 billion in the nine months to September, up 15 percent from the year ago level.

Including one-time trading gains of P7.4 billion, SM Prime’s net income grew by 70 percent to P22.9 billion.

 Consolidated revenues rose nine percent to P52.2 billion, bulk of which or 56 percent came from rental revenues from SM Prime’s retail and commercial spaces.

SM Prime president Hans Sy attributed the revenue growth to the expansion across all business portfolios since 2013.

“We expect SM Prime’s growth to be sustained as we continue to increase our mall footprint by 13 percent this year. We are excited to launch SM Seaside Cebu later this year, a landmark project in the Visayas region. We see Metro Cebu as one of our important growth corridors following our growth track in Metro Manila,” Sy said.

Rental revenues increased by 11 percent to P29.4 billion from P26.4 billion a year ago, driven by improving contributions from the new malls and the expansion of shopping spaces in existing malls in 2013 and 2014.

These include SM Aura Premier, SM City BF Parañaque, Mega Fashion Hall in SM Megamall, SM City Cauayan, SM Center Angono and the expansion of SM City Bacolod with a total gross floor area of 652,000 square meters.

On top of these new malls and expansion, rental growth also came from the opening of the FiveE-comCenter, with a GFA of almost 130,000 sqm at Mall of Asia Complex with 97 percent of the lease space already awarded.

Same-store rental growth, meanwhile, was seven percent, maintaining the growth posted since 2012.

 SM Prime’s real estate business also grew with sales hitting P16.6 billion or 32 percent of consolidated revenues.

“The improvement in real estate sales was largely attributed to the increase in the sales take-up and higher construction accomplishment of SMDC projects launched in 2010 to 2013 namely Jazz Residences in Makati City, Wind Residences in Tagaytay, Green Residences in Manila, Breeze Residences in Manila, Grace Residences in Taguig, Shore Residences in Pasay, and Trees Residences in Quezon City,” SM Prime said.