The Philippines’ biggest mall developer, SM Prime Holdings , will boost capital spending 66 percent next year, the firm said on Tuesday, despite a global financial crisis that has sent developed economies into recession.

SM Prime is bucking a domestic trend in which big corporations like the Philippine Long Distance Co and Globe Telecoms announced cuts in their 2009 spending plans earlier this month.

The worst financial crisis in 80 years has depressed profits at major financial and consumer companies worldwide, and U.S. bank Citigroup said on Monday it would cut 52,000 jobs in one of the largest layoffs in history.

SM Prime, a unit of conglomerate SM Investments Corp of Henry Sy, one of the Philippines’ richest men, said in a statement to the stock exchange it would spend 10 billion pesos (US$ 205 million) next year from 6 billion pesos this year.

The company is counting on steady remittances from overseas Filipinos, equivalent to about 10 percent of domestic output, to fuel continued growth in domestic consumption despite the deepening financial crisis globally.

The company, which recorded a 9 percent increase in net income in the third quarter, said 70 percent of the 2009 capital spending plan would go to the construction of new shopping malls and expansion of existing ones.

The balance would go to expanding its presence in China, the world’s fourth largest economy. The company now has three malls in China, located in Xiamen and Jinjiang in the south and Chengdu in central China. 

SM Prime expects to end this year with 33 malls nationwide. Shares of SM Prime were down 4.29 percent in late trade on Tuesday, deeper than the 3.66 percent fall in the main stock index.