MANILA, Philippines – SM Prime Holdings, Inc., the Philippines’ dominant shopping mall developer and operator, posted an 11 percent increase in net income for the first nine months of 2010 to P5.6 billion from P5.1 billion during the same period last year.

In a disclosure, the firm said its revenues for the first nine months of this year reached P17.0 billion, for a 17 percent increase, year-on-year, while EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortizatons) rose 15 percent to P11.5 billion for an EBITDA margin of 68 percent.

SM Prime reported a 12 percent gain in consolidated net income for the third quarter of 2010 to P1.9 billion from P1.7 billion in the same period in 2009.

Consolidated revenues grew 14 percent to P5.7 billion in the third quarter compared with P5.0 billion during the same period in 2009. EBITDA for the quarter rose 10 percent to P3.8 billion, for an EBITDA margin of 67 percent.

“Our performance for the first nine months of 2010 remains on track, and in fact better than we earlier expected given a more robust consumer environment,” SM Prime president Hans T. Sy said.

He noted that the domestic economy displays strength and sustainable growth which fuels increased spending that flows into SM malls. “We expect this trend to continue into the last quarter of the year, when the holiday season further boosts consumer spending,” Sy added.

For the first nine months of 2010, SM Prime’s consolidated rental revenues contributed 84 percent to the total, and grew by 13 percent to P14.3 billion. The increase came from both new space and same store rental growth of 6 percent.

New rental space came from the malls that opened in 2009 namely, SM City Naga, SM City Rosario, and SM Center Las Piñas, together with SM City Tarlac, which opened in April of this year.

In addition, expansion projects in SM North Edsa, SM City Fairview, and SM City Rosales also contributed to rental revenue growth. The new malls and expansions in 2009 and 2010 added 340,000 square meters (sqm) to the company’s total gross floor area (GFA) and presently register an average occupancy rate of 97 percent.

Cinema ticket sales from January to September, 2010 jumped 41 percent to P2.0 billion from P1.4 billion during the same period in 2009.

In October 2010, SM Prime inaugurated three new malls, which are SM City Novaliches in Quezon City; and SM City San Pablo and SM City Calamba, both of which are in the province of Laguna.

In addition, the company is scheduled to unveil within the fourth quarter of this year its fourth SM mall in mainland China, which will be located in the city of Suzhou.

Thus, by end 2010, SM Prime will have 40 malls nationwide, and including the four SM China malls, its total estimated GFA will reach 5.4 million sqm.