MANILA – The SM group expects to complete negotiations for a ‘partnership’ with the Waltermart group in the next six months.

Teresita Sy-Coson, SM Investments Corp vice chairman, told reporters that the SM group will form a 50-50 joint venture with the Waltermart group of the Lim family, which will retain management control of the new company.

‘It’s a good joint venture. The families will be working together. It’s more than business. It’s a merging of families and business,’ said Sy-Coson.

Like SM, Waltermart is engaged in the shopping mall and supermarket businesses and has a network of 17 community malls located in Batangas (Tanauan), Laguna (Sta. Rosa, Calamba and Makiling), Cavite (Carmona, Dasmarinas, General Trias and Trece Martires), Metro Manila (Sucat, Makati, North Edsa and E. Rodriguez), Bulacan (Plaridel, Guiguinto and Santa Maria), Pampanga (San Fernando) and Nueva Ecija (Gapan).

The partnership will have a “different concept,’ Sy-Coson said, allowing SM to aid in the expansion of Waltermart.

‘There should be synergy. Waltermart is known for community development and the smaller malls, in between the big malls of SM,’ said Jeffrey Lim, SM Prime Holdings Inc executive vice president. 

Early this month, SM Investments Corp said the conglomerate, through subsidiaries SM Retail Inc and SM Prime, entered into a joint venture agreement with the Waltermart Group.

The SM group is the country’s largest retailer and shopping mall operator. At-end September, SM Retail had 193 stores, consisting of 46 department stores, 37 SM Supermarkets, 34 SM Hypermarkets, and 76 SaveMore SM Prime operates 46 malls in the country with a combined gross floor area of 5.5 million square meters. Including its five malls in China, SM malls have a combined gross floor area of 6.3 million square meters.

‘We’ve been working together for quite some time in the past. It’s more of like two groups of investors working together, two families working together,’ Sy-Coson said.
Earlier this month, Puregold Price Club Inc, SM’s closest competitor, announced it will acquire the owner and operator of the Eunilaine food mart and Grocer E supermarket.  It ended 2012 with 156 stores after rolling out 31 new stores, including 17 hypermarkets, 10 supermarkets and 4 extras.