DAVAO CITY — Sy-led SM Prime Holdings, Inc. is looking at expanding its presence in Davao Region, the company’s top official said during a recent visit here.

“We are looking at some properties,” SM Prime President Hans T. Sy told local journalists.

At the opening of its second shopping mall here in September, Mr. Sy had said the company plans to open at least one shopping mall each year in Mindanao because the island “is greatly overlooked.” 

In the city, aside from the two malls, the firm also opened early this year a Savemore grocery store.

Mr. Sy said that, next year, the company plans build two more malls on the island — one in Cagayan de Oro City in Northern Mindanao, where it already has one, and the other in Butuan City in Caraga in eastern Mindanao. The company, he said, plans to build a total of four more malls on the island in the next five years.

SM Prime shares gained 62 centavos to P15.12 apiece at the closing of trades yesterday from P14.50 on Wednesday. – CQF