SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPH), the country’s largest operator of shopping malls, expects to continue its double-digit growth in its Mindanao as a result of the region’s robust economy.

Debby Go, SM Supermalls assistant vice president for operation, said the company is able to benefit from the positive developments in region as the company expands its existing facilities in Mindanao.

“SM is looking at increasing the occupancy rate of existing malls, the will result to more job creation in the area and community development,” Go said.

The company currently has four malls in the entire Mindanao—two in Davao and one each in General Santos City and Cagayan de Oro.

Go said SMPH is building another mall in Butuan and expand its existing shopping mall in Cagayan de Oro City and the old Davao mall.

She said that SMPH is set for opening in late 2014 or early 2015 a mall in Butuan.

SMPH currently has 431,000 square meters of gross leasable area in its four malls in Mindanao, and Go said the company expects to grow this further once new developments are in place. The company also plans to have a second mall in Cagayan de Oro.

SMPH’s portfolio includes 47 shopping malls in the Philippines with a total gross floor area of about 6 million square meters. Its five malls in China, including those in Chengdu and Suzhou, have a total gross floor area of around 0.8 million square meter.

Early in the year, SMPH opened SM Aura Premier in Fort Bonifacio, its second mall aimed at the upscale consumer market, next to The Podium Mall in Ortigas Center in Pasig City.

For the rest of 2013, the company will open shopping centers near BF Homes in Parañaque, while it will finish the expansion of SM Megamall in Ortigas, which will become the company’s largest mall by gross floor area in the country.

SM Prime’s profit for the first half of the year reached P5.64 billion, 15-percent higher than last year’s P4.92 billion. Consolidated revenues amounted to P16.55 billion, up 14 percent from last year’s P14.57 billion.