THE SM Group has forged a joint venture with Waltermart Group of Companies, a firm that also operates its own chain of shopping mall and supermarket in the country.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday, SM Investments Corp. (SMIC)—through units SM Retail Inc. and SM Prime Holdings Inc.—signed an agreement with the Waltermart group, owned by Lim family. No other details were provided in the disclosure.

Waltermart directly competes with some of SM’s retail businesses. Aside from operating a mall and a supermarket—the most recent addition of which was the P1 billion mall in Muñoz in North Edsa the Lim family also has an appliance and electronics store under the brand name Abenson and Electroworld.

Waltermart has 17 community malls. These are situated in Tanauan in Batangas; Santa Rosa, Calamba and Makiling in Laguna; Carmona, Dasmariñas, General Trias and Trece Martires in Cavite; Sucat; Makati, Muñoz and E. Rodriguez in Metro Manila; Plaridel, Guiguinto and Santa Maria in Bulacan;  San Fernando in Pampanga; and Gapan in Nueva Ecija.

Waltermart’s affiliates include appliance and electronics stores Abenson and Electroworld. 

Mall operator SM Prime has 46 malls in the Philippines and five in China as of end-2012.

In Photo: In photo is the Prism Plaza, located at the SM Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City and owned by SM Investment Corp., whose stocks rank as among the country’s most valuable. (Alysa Salen)