SM Prime Holdings, Inc. President Hans T. Sy will turn over the reins of the company to trusted executive vice president Jeffrey Lim on October 1, 2016 so he can be on semi-retirement and get to spend more time with his family.
 
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, SM Prime said that while Sy will relinquish his post as President and Chief Executive of the company, he will “continue to be the Chairman of the Executive Committee, Member of the Board of Directors and will still be highly involved in the company’s overall direction.”
 
Sy will also stay on as Board Director in other members of the Sy group of companies. He serves as an Adviser to the Board at SM Investments Corporation, Chairman of China Banking Corporation, and Chairman of National University.
 
“He wants to have more free time for himself and his organization is developed enough to take on many of his responsibilities,” said SM Investments Corporation Vice Chairperson Teresita Sy-Coson.
 
In his 12 years as president of SM Prime, Sy led the company to grow at an aggressive pace, opening 3 to 5 malls a year in the Philippines and even expanded into China where it aims to open one mall a year.
 
The biggest task Sy accomplished was the integration of all of the SM Group’s real estate businesses under SM Prime to transform it into one of the largest integrated property developers in Southeast Asia.
 
Sy said the firm will continue to build new malls while expanding existing malls. For this year, SM Prime will open new malls in Trece Martires in Cavite; San Jose del Monte, Bulacan; Cherry Congressional; Cherry Antipolo; and East Ortigas.
 
SM Prime will also be redeveloping portions of its Mall of Asia complex, investing P1.5 billion to increase its retail area to 700,000 square meters — making it the biggest mall in the country.
 
Also up for expansion is SM Clark in Pampanga which will be expanded to include office space for the business process outsourcing sector.
 
For its residential development business, SM Prime chairman Henry Sy Jr. said they will be expanding their product offerings from their core offering of affordable condominiums.
 
Lim said they intend to launch about 2,000 units for the economic housing market out of the total 12,000 to 15,000 residential units they plan to launch this year.
 
Sy said SM Prime is also evaluating areas in the ASEAN region “to see where we will get the most opportunities.”
 
Lim said SM Prime is getting proposals for projects in other countries since it is making a name for itself as an integrated property company.