SM PRIME Holdings, Inc., the country’s largest mall operator, tapped Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. and Macquarie Securities (Asia) Pte. Ltd. as joint financial advisers for the plan to fold into the publicly listed company malls in China which are owned by the Sy family. 

In a statement, the company said Citigroup and Macquarie would evaluate the potential acquisition of the three China malls currently owned by the family, which is also the company’s major shareholder.  

SM City North Edsa, one of the malls owned by SM Prime in the Philippines ‘SM Prime will announce further details on the proposed acquisition as soon as the study is completed,’ the company said. 

The Sys entered China with a 120,000-square meter mall in Xiamen in 2003 and opened a second mall which covers 165,000 square meters to 175,000 square meters at the province of Jin Jiang City. 

Its third mall, which has retail giant Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and Laiya as anchor tenants, is located in Zhengdu province. The company is also looking for another site for a fourth mall to be constructed. 

SM Prime currently has 28 malls nationwide and targets to have 35 to 40 malls after the five-year period.  The company is scheduled to open SM City Taytay and SM Supercenter Muntinlupa, while expansion of existing malls — SM City Cebu Annex and SM City Pampanga are also ongoing. 

By the end of 2007, total gross floor area of all SM Prime malls is projected to reach 3.9 million square meters.  SM Prime saw an 11% increase in net income for the first half of the year to P2.9 billion due to the opening of new malls.