October 11, 2013 — SY-LED SM Group has moved closer to the consolidation of its real estate businesses with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval of the merger of SM Prime Holdings, Inc. and SM Land, Inc., the former said in a disclosure on Friday.

Aside from the merger, which will leave SM Prime as surviving entity, SEC on Oct. 10 also cleared the listed property developer’s increase in authorized capital stock to P40 billion from P20 billion and issuance of common shares for acquisition of real estate companies and properties held by SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) through share swap.

The merger was approved after SM Land — a privately held company of the Sy family — acquired condominium builder SM Development Corp. and leisure property developer Highlands Prime, Inc. last quarter.

SMDC and Highlands Prime have applied to delist after their public floats fell below the bourse’s 10% minimum requirement.

In a text message on Friday, SMIC senior vice-president for investor relations Corazon P. Guidote said the next move will be “full consolidation of assets and operations”.

The group had said in May that SM Prime would acquire property assets, hotels, resorts and convention centers owned by SMIC or the Sy family through share-swap transactions.

Once consolidation is completed, SM Prime is expected to become the biggest property firm in Southeast Asia in terms of market capitalization, which is expected to balloon to $14 billion or around P560 billion from P338 billion currently.

At the same time, SM Prime’s total assets will also increase to P284.1 billion from P148.1 billion; revenues will rise to P57.4 billion from P30.7 billion; annual net income will grow to P17.0 billion from P10.9 billion once consolidation is finished.

Shares of SM Prime shed 12 centavos or 0.71% to close P16.68 apiece on Friday from P16.80 each on Thursday. — Cliff Harvey C. Venzon