SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SM Prime), the country’s dominant shopping mall developer and operator, posted a 22 percent year-on-year increase in gross revenues for the first half of 2007 to P7.45 billion. 

Net income stood at P2.9 billion, for an 11 percent growth with EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) increasing by 18 percent to P5.20 billion.

This was aided by a slightly stronger bottomline in the second quarter as the company’s net income increased by 12 percent to P1.43 billion. This compares with the 11 percent growth in the first quarter. Gross revenues grew 21 percent to P3.90 billion in the second quarter.

Operating income was up 17 percent to P2.15 billion even as operating expenses increased 25 percent to P1.75 billion.  SM Prime President Hans T. Sy said: ‘We are pleased with our first-half results.

It reflects the fact that our aggressive expansion last year is generating benefits beyond our expectations, as our new malls enjoy very high occupancy levels and record foot traffic.

The SM Mall of Asia is clearly in the radar screen of Filipino consumers, foreign and domestic tourists, and other groups who have made it the prime destination mall in the country.

We expect foot traffic in the Mall of Asia to further improve toward the fourth quarter as adjacent buildings in the area such as the SMX Convention Center and SM’s BPO building, the OneEcom Center, both open for business sometime in October this year.’

‘After opening our state-of-the-art 32-lane bowling center, we are also looking forward to the opening of the Science Discovery Center and Planetarium at the Mall of Asia and the Sunset Strip fronting Manila Bay this October.

These will be new concepts for our customers to enjoy and learn from and make the country’s largest mall an even more interesting and diverse destination.’ Sy added.

First half rental revenues, which accounted for 82 percent of revenues, grew significantly by 22 percent amounting to P6.15 billion, as SM Prime benefits from the new revenue stream from last year’s new malls including the 386,000 sqm.

Mall of Asia which turned one year old in May 2007.  Aside from the Mall of Asia, the malls that opened last year were SM City Sta. Rosa, SM City Lipa, SM City Clark, SM Supercenter Pasig, and The Block which is a mall extension of SM North EDSA. This year, SM Prime opened SM City Bacolod.

All these new malls have an average occupancy rate of 98 percent. Combined, they provided an additional 800,000 square meters of gross floor area, bringing the total to 3.6 million square meters, for all 28 SM Prime malls nationwide.

Average daily foot traffic for all the malls is 2 million. Cinema ticket sales registered a robust growth of 28 percent to P969 million for the six-month period ended June 30, 2007.

This is a result of more cinemas opened and the screening of blockbuster movies such as, among others, ‘Spiderman 3,’ ‘Ang Cute ng Ina Mo,’ ‘Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End,’ ‘Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo,’ and ‘Fantastic 4 – The Rise of the Silver Surfer.’