XIAMEN, China—SM Prime Holdings Inc., the Philippines’ largest shopping mall operator and developer, will open four new malls in China between 2010 and 2013, including the biggest, as part of an aggressive expansion plan.

SM Prime vice president of finance for China malls Diane Dionisio said the four retail outlets would cost a combined 3.55 billion RMB or P23.4 billion.

She identified the new malls as SM Suzhou, which will open before the end of 2010, SM Chongqing in 2011 and SM Tianjin and SM Shandong in 2013.

SM Suzhou is a 73,000-square meter mall that will cost 450 million RMB (P2.9 billion) to build. SM Chongqing, a 150,000- sq. m. shopping complex, will require 500 million RMB (P3.3 billion) to build while the 170,000 sq. m. SM Shandong will cost 630 million RMB (P4.1 billion).

SM Tianjin, which will offer 530,000 sq. m. of space, is expected to be the company’s biggest shopping mall in China and Philippines. The company plans to invest 2 billion RMB (P13.2 billion) in the huge development.

SM Prime considers the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City as its biggest shopping mall. The Mall of Asia occupies 19 of the 60-hectare land area. The entire SM Tianjin mall, meanwhile, will occupy 43 hectares.

SM Prime operates four malls in China, namely SM City Xiamen, SM City Jianjing, SM Lifestyle Center, also in Xiamen, and SM City Chengdu.

SM City Xiamen, the company’s first mall in China, is 100 percent leased out with daily foot traffic reaching 100,000, while its recently opened SM Lefestyle Center, which targets the high-end and middle-income market, is currently 80 percent leased out with daily foot traffic of 10,000.

SM Prime earlier said it would open one shopping mall a year in China, the same business plan it adopted in the Philippines when it started constructing shopping centers.

The company said it might put up several shopping malls a year in China after a study of the Chinese market.

The China malls contributed P600 million in gross revenues in the first two quarters of the year, accounting for 5 percent of total consolidated sales. These malls contributed P100 million to the income of SM Prime in the six-month period, or 3 percent of total consolidated profit.

Rental revenue of the three malls on year rose 26 percent in the first semester of 2010.

SM Prime in the Philippines is set to launch later this year SM City Novaliches in Quezon City and SM City San Pablo and SM City Calamba in the province of Laguna.

The company is expected to have 40 malls in the Philippines by the end of the year, with an estimated total gross floor area of 4.7 million sq. m.