XIAMEN, China – SM Prime Holdings Inc., the mall developing arm of SM Investments Corporation, is investing around RMB3.58 billion or P23.63 billion to develop four more malls in China, including one bigger than the Mall of Asia.

SM’s Shopping Center Management Corporation president Annie Garcia said they are building new malls in Suzhou, Chongqing, Tian Jin and Shandong, following the success of its first four malls in Xiamen (SM Xiamen and SM Lifestyle Center), Jinjiang, and Chengdu.

She added that they also continue to negotiate for new mall sites in China, including one in Foozhou, the capital of Fujian province.

SM Prime’s China projects vice president for finance Diane Dionisio said most notable of these new projects is SM Tian Jin which is going to be the firm’s biggest mall ever with a gross leasable space of 530,000 square meters – compared to 409,000 sqm. for MOA.

She said the mall Tian Jin will be built on a 43-hectare lot the firm has aquired and will have a footprint of around three hectares. It will have the approximate size of three football stadiums.

SM Tian Jin will cost about RMB2 billion to build with construction expected to be complete by 2013 after starting earlier this year. Tian jin is about an hour by car from Beijing and is one of four major cities in China including Beijing and Shanghai.

Dionisio said this also marks SM Prime’s first entry into a big city in China since it had focused more on small cities or municipalities that are still under-served.

Meanwhile, Dionisio said SM Suzhou will cost RMB450 million to build and will have a gross leasable area of 73,000 sqm. She explained that the mall is more expensive than others because of the high cost of land. It will open this year.

SM Chongqing, which will open next year, will have 150,000 sqm. of gross leasable space and will cost RMB500 million while SM Shandong will cost RMB630 million to build and will have a GLA of 170,000 sqm. when it opens in late 2013.