SM PRIME Holdings Inc. and Ayala Land Inc. (ALl) have been recognized for their high standards by the Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (Aprea) in its Best Practices Awards 2011.

SM Prime was awarded the ‘Highly Commended’ prize in the Emerging Markets category, and also picked up merit awards in the categories of valuation and corporate governance, as well as best submission from the Philippines. ALl was awarded a merit prize in the category of portfolio performance reporting.

Lim Swe Guan, chairman of the Aprea board, said: ‘[The group] has developed best practices to streamline performance measurement and reporting for the real estate investment industry in the region. Members are encouraged to adopt state of the art valuation techniques, conform to international financial reporting standards and embrace good corporate governance. Greater transparency of portfolio’ performance, providing comprehensive, useful and timely information to investors and a culture of unimpeachable ethics will lead to higher investor confidence and wider support for the industry. Adopting

best practices is vital to ensuring that real estate continues to form an integral component of every investor’s portfolio.’

The Aprea Best Practices Awards are open to all real estate companies and trusts listed on a regional stock exchange. Several submissions were received from a number of countries including Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines and India. Submissions were judged by a selection committee comprised of a number of international investors and valuers with extensive experience working with regional listed real-estate entities in areas such as accounting and financial reporting, property valuation, real-estate securities research and funds management.