SM Prime Holdings, the biggest mall operator in the country, is eyeing to have 10 malls in China in five years, when their contribution to company revenues should grow five times, its president Hans Sy said.

Sy said in an interview at the sidelines of the launch of SM Supermalls ‘Green Retail Agenda’ that SM Prime also remains focused on growing its malls in the Philippines, opening six a year, as it has a landbank that could accommodate 50 malls nationwide.

Sy said SM malls in China should contribute 10 percent to overall revenues by 2013 or 2014, saying ‘that’s where the growth story is.’

He said SM would have saturated the Philippine market by that time.

Sy said SM malls in China are performing within expectations and contributing two to three percent to total revenues six years after SM first set up a shop in Xiamen.

SM is targeting to open one mall a year in China to achieve the 10 malls from the current three beginning 2010. SM will open a mall in Sozhou next year; in Chongqing in 2011 and Zibo in Shandong in 2012.

This year, Sy said, SM expanded its Xiamen store by doubling its size.

In 2008, SM Prime posted profits of P6.4 billion

Sy said the company hopes to grow 10 percent every year and is, so far for the year, close to hitting that.

‘In 1995, my father (SM patriarch Henry Sy Sr.) has already set his sights on a 10 percent annual growth when the company was just making P500 million,’ Sy said.

Locally, Sy said there is a lot of potential in Metro Manila. For example, he said,. SM has not gone to Novaliches yet.

The company’s target is to build four to six malls a year.

Next malls in the metro would be located in Masinag in Cainta and Novaliches.

‘We are focusing both in Metro Manila, going to the south,’ Sy said.

SM Prime is setting aside P7 billion to P10 billion in capital expenditure in 2010, including the three new malls

This week, SM Prime will open in Rosario, Cavite and will reopen on November 26 its mall in Rosales, Pangasinan two months after it was damaged by typhoon ‘Pepeng.’ SM Prime spent about P40 million to repair the establishment.

At the same tine, Sy said SM is focusing more on full-sized mall while cutting down on the supercenters because they are more efficient.

‘Customers look for department stores,’ he said..

SM now has three supercenters located in Pasig, Muntinlupa and Las Pinas.

SM Prime owns SM Supermalls which operates over 35 shopping centers in the Philippines, including its joint mall project with Keppel Land, The Podium and three malls in CHina. SM Supermall attracts 2.8 million people daily and has about 11,000 tenants.