LISTED mall developer SM Prime Holdings Inc. is once again training its vast financial resources toward Cebu as it proposes to spend over P20 billion until 2025 to develop a 28-hectare property into the island’s own version of SM Mall of Asia.

In an interview, SM Prime president Hans Sy said the company bid last month for the property, part of  the 300-hectare the South Road Properties, a land reclamation project led by the Cebu City government.

While Sy acknowledged that the Cebu government has yet to award the land, he said the company remains confident that the deal will be completed by January next year.

“We made an unsolicited proposal and we had to make sure it’s a bid that we will surely get,” he said, noting the offer was about P11,000 per square meter. “We are looking at the opportunity and you don’t really get to see a big chunk of property within the city limits [like this one].”

In addition, he said the company is coming in as a buyer for the property, and not as a joint-venture partner with the local government.

Sy said the Cebu project will be a smaller version of the 60-hectare Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City, said to be the largest in the country.

“[It] will be a mixed-use complex with institutional components such as schools and a residential component. It will also have hotels and convention centers on top of the shopping center,” said Sy.

“We are looking at a 15-year development and [the investment] target is about P20 billion. [This] is the [company’s] next big project” he said.

He pointed out that the mall will be built first, making it the second in the province after SM City Cebu, which was opened in 1993. Sy added that other aspects such as the residential component, which may be handled by listed affiliate SM Development Corp., may start after five years.

The SM Prime executive said Cebu City is a big area for developers, noting that the company is eyeing a third location for another SM mall, although he did not provide further details.

Apart from SM Prime, Filinvest Land Inc.is also planning to launch early next year the first phase of its joint venture with the Cebu City government to develop a 50.6-hectare property, also within the South Road Properties. The Gotianun-led company plans to spend estimated P20 billion over a 20-year to 25-year period for this project.

SM Prime said consolidated net income in the third quarter rose 9 percent to P1.7 billion while revenues grew 14 percent to P5 billion from the same period last year. This brings the company’s profits in the first nine months to P5.1 billion, up 8 percent from last year.

The company currently owns 36 malls in the country, and three in China. Next year, it plans to open five SM malls, expecting to end 2010 with 41 malls all over the Philippines.