MANILA – SM has partnered with the Waltermart Group of Companies.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, SM Investments Corp said the conglomerate, through subsidiaries SM Retail Inc and SM Prime Holdings Inc, entered into a joint venture agreement with the Waltermart Group. No details were disclosed.

‘We cannot provide details yet as the [joint venture] agreement signed today is subject to due diligence and further negotiation,’ Jeffrey Lim, SM Prime executive vice president, said in an e-mail.

Like SM, Waltermart is engaged in the shopping mall and supermarket businesses. It has established its presence in Makati, Quezon City, Paranaque, Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Paranaque, according to its website.

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 stores.

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.

The SM Group is also in the business of real estate development, banking, hotels and convention.  Aside from its core businesses, the SM group also has interests in mining, infrastructure, and geothermal energy.