SM Prime Holdings Inc., the leading shopping mall developer and operator owned by retail tycoon Henry Sy, has acquired three malls in China through a share-swap agreement.  SM Prime, in a disclosure to the stock exchange, said it had submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission documents relating to the acquisition of the malls.  The malls, owned by the Sy family, are located in the cities of Jinjiang, Xiamen and Chengdu. Anchor tenants include retailing giant Wal-Mart, international fast food restaurants McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken, and department store Shoe Mart-Laiya.

The holding company plans to issue 372.49 million new common shares to Oriental Land Development Ltd. in exchange for 100-percent equity of Mega Make Enterprises Ltd., a company that fully owns Shoe Mart Jinjiang.  The company will issue 540.4 million new common shares to Grand China International Ltd. for a 100-percent ownership of Affluent Capital Enterprises which owns the Xiamen and Chengdu malls. The issued shares will have a par value of P1 per share. 

The company tapped Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. and Macquarie Securities (Asia) Pte Ltd. as financial advisers for the acquisition, Savills Valuation and Professional Services Ltd. as property appraiser, and PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd. and Commerce and Finance Law Offices for China and Grant Thornton International as independent financial advisers.  The consolidation would help the company raise additional funds to finance its expansion in China, it said.  The holding company last year booked P6 billion in net income, up 10 percent from P5.4 billion in 2006. It said gross revenues for the year went up 16 percent to P15.3 billion, primarily due to the opening of three new malls and expansion of another three existing malls.

The company operates 30 malls nationwide as of last year, 13 of which are in Metro Manila, and has a combined average daily pedestrian count of 2.5 million.  It is scheduled this year to open three new malls in Pangasinan, Bulacan and Marikina, and expand two of its existing malls for an estimated amount of P6 billion.