MALL and real estate developer SM Prime Holdings, Inc. plans to open four to five shopping malls next year, including one in China, to boost the group’s gross floor area by an annual 8%, a company official said on Wednesday.

The mall in China will be located in Tianjin, while target locations for the local shopping centers include Cebu and Cabanatuan provinces, SM Prime Executive Vice-President Jeffrey C. Lim told reporters on the sidelines of an awarding ceremony for the ING-FINEX CFO of the Year held in Makati City.

“Given the size that we have now, there will be around 8% [increase] in terms of GFA (gross floor area),” he said, adding that the company’s target annual increase in GFA is also “in that range.”

SM Prime, which is the holding company for tycoon Henry Sy’s mall and real estate businesses, has 50 shopping malls in the Philippines. The most recent one, a 41,481-square-meter (sq.m.) mall, opened just last Nov. 14 in Angono, Rizal.

Before that, the group’s Philippine malls had a combined gross floor area of 6.3 million sq.m., according to its financial statement.

In China, SM Prime has five shopping malls with 0.8 million sq.m. of gross floor area. It is set to open a mall in Zibo, China before the year ends.

By end-2014, SM Prime’s malls here and in China will have a combined gross floor area of 7.5 million sq.m.

The new malls will be funded under a P400-billion capital expenditure plan that the group unveiled last April. The plan aims to increase SM Prime’s malls to 85 through 2018: 74 in the Philippines and 11, in China.

The property giant earmarked around P1.2 billion to P1.5 billion for the renovation of the Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City over the next two years, which will include the construction of a stadium, Mr. Lim said.

SM Prime reported a 12% increase in profit to P13.5 billion for the nine months to end of September, while revenue grew 9% to P47.8 billion.

The SM group’s property business was consolidated last year under SM Prime, whose subsidiaries are First Asia Realty Development Corp., Premier Central, Inc., Consolidated Prime Development Corp., Premier Southern Corp., San Lazaro Holdings Corp., First Leisure Ventures Group, Inc., Southernpoint Properties Corp., Mega Make Enterprises Ltd., Affluent Capital Enterprises Ltd., SM Land (China) Ltd., and Springfield Global Enterprises Ltd.

The consolidation, company officials earlier said, allows the group to grow its business in China beyond just malls to include office, condominiums and hotels. The move also makes SM Prime big enough to easily attract foreign capital, officials had said.

Shares of the listed company shed two centavos or 0.11% to close at P17.60 apiece.