SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPH.PH), the Philippines’ largest mall operator by sales, is gearing to expand into China, SM Prime Executive Vice President Teresita Sy said Tuesday. ‘We’re definitely expanding in China.
We look at the Chinese economy as one that has a lot of potentials,’ Sy told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview. SM Prime, together with financial advisers Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. and Macquarie Securities (Asia) Pte. Ltd., is now studying the acquisition of three malls in China.
These malls are all owned by SM Prime’s major shareholder, the Sy family. ‘They will be part of SM Prime eventually. As to the contributions (to group earnings), we’re still looking at the numbers and we will be able to announce (the acquisition details) either within the year or the first quarter,’ said Sy, who is also the daughter of SM Prime founder Henry Sy.
‘Right now, we’re definitely expanding in China. But as to the number (of malls), it would just be a guess at this point. I would rather wait for the whole project to be done and make the proper disclosure.’
The Sy family has a 170,000-square meter mall in Chengdu province and another one in Fujian province, while its first China mall, which has a size of 120,000 square meters, opened in Xiamen in 2003. In the Philippines, SM Prime has 28 malls in its portfolio, with a total leasable floor area of 3.6 million square meters.
Meanwhile, Sy said her family is now consolidating its property businesses under investment holding company Shoemart Inc., which will then be renamed SM Land Inc. SM Prime will now be under Shoemart Inc., together with the Sy family’s ongoing tourism, hotel and commercial developments.
On Tuesday, Shoemart announced a tender offer to acquire shares in property developer SM Development Corp. (SMDC.PH) held by minority stockholders. Shoemart agreed to acquire the 48.6% stake of affiliate SM Investments Corp. (SM.PH) in SM Development to boost its interest to 64.2%.
Shoemart said in a newspaper advertisement that it will conduct a month-long tender offer to acquire the remaining 35.8%, or 1.31 billion shares, in SM Development for PHP3.95 each.
Sy clarified there is currently no plan to list Shoemart on the stock market, adding that the move was aimed at consolidating all its property businesses under one roof.
The Sy family is the majority shareholder of conglomerate SM Investments Corp. Apart from SM Prime, SM Investments also controls Banco de Oro Universal Bank-EPCI, the country’s third largest bank in terms of assets, as well as a chain of supermarkets and hypermarkets.
It also has interests in China Banking Corp. and San Miguel Corp. Asked whether another acquisition for Banco de Oro-EPCI is in the offing, Sy said:
‘We’re always open, but we don’t have anything planned.’ Banco de Oro-EPCI was created in May out of the merger between Banco de Oro Universal Bank and Equitable PCI Bank.