SM Prime Holdings Inc. announced that it borrowed money anew through the sale of corporate notes or debt papers that regularly pay buyers a floating rate.  In a statement, the Philippines’ biggest mall developer, said it raised P4 billion through the sale of five-year floating rate notes.

The borrowing was arranged by First Metro Investment Corp. with SB Capital Investment Corp. as co-lead arranger.  SM Prime said investors flocked to the debt paper-sale, attracting seven primary institutional lenders. 

“The strong response by the market to this financing illustrates the high credit quality of [SM Prime], as well as the local market’s confidence in [the company],�? the mall-developer said. 

Earlier, the company said it is earmarking P7 billion this year for the construction of new malls and the expansion of existing ones, which include the construction of a planetarium and a science museum inside the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City and the expansion of SM North Edsa and SM City Pampanga. 

The development of the 3,000-square-meter museum and planetarium would require P250 million, with construction expected to finish by year-end.  SM North Edsa’s expansion would cost about P1.8 billion, as the existing Annex building is demolished to give way to a bigger building. 

The company recently opened SM City Cebu Annex, raising the mall’s gross floor area by 66 percent to 268,611 square meters, making it SM Prime’s fourth largest mall and the largest in the Visayas area. 

Other malls scheduled to open this year include SM City Taytay and SM Supercenter Muntinlupa, while new malls in the cities of Marikina, Tarlac, Naga and in the town of Baliwag would start operating next year. 

The company’s net income for the first three months this year climbed by 11 percent to P1.5 billion as gross revenues grew 24 percent to P3.6 billion due to the expanded rental revenues from five malls that opened last year.