TWO FACTORS should make SM Prime Holdings, Inc., the country’s leading shopping mall developer and operator, an attractive stock to invest in at present: huge remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and the expected increase in consumer spending in time for the holiday season.

An analyst said that the fact that remittance inflows remained robust in July should make SM Prime a good value play, since it means that Filipinos have more power to spend now, especially that Christmas is approaching.

“SM Prime is consumer-driven. Remittances from OFWs have remained robust during the past months so this could boost consumer spending. Christmas is also fast approaching so this could further increase the company’s sales,” said Anita Panaligan of Wealth Securities, Inc.

Latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed that remittance inflows in July remained healthy at US$ 1.37 billion, 25% higher than the previous year’s US$ 1.097 billion. This brought the cumulative remittance inflows for the first seven months of this year to .608 billion, 18% higher than a year ago.

“We haven’t seen so far any slowdown in remittance inflows, so this must be good for SM Prime,” said Ms. Panaligan, adding she expected the company’s bottom line to reach P6.7 billion this year.

SM Prime, meanwhile, for its part, said it is hopeful that the expected increase in consumer spending during the holiday season would enable it to meet income targets for this year.

In the second quarter alone, strong retail sales enabled the company to post P4.373 billion in consolidated revenues, almost 8% higher than the previous year’s P4.061 billion.

The shopping mall operator’s consolidated net income, meanwhile, also increased by more than 10% to P1.648 billion.

Last month, SM Prime Holdings further improved its chances of meeting its 8% to 10% growth target for the year by opening to the public its 31st supermall, SM City Marikina, the first to be opened this year.

The company is also set to open new malls in Rosales, Pangasinan; Nagtahan, Manila; and Baliuag, Bulacan.

SM Prime Holdings has been one of the most actively traded stocks in the local bourse last week.

While shares of the stock have been in an uptrend two weeks ago, SM Prime saw its share price go down last week to as low as P8.10 apiece from P8.80.

Investors should take this as an opportunity to get into the stock, as the trend is still up, a brokerage firm said.

Shares of SM Prime were last traded at P8.20, with 9.444 million shares worth P77.6 million changing hands.