SM Prime Holdings, Inc., the country’s leading shopping mall developer and operator, registered a 7 percent increase in net income to P1.6 billion for the first quarter of 2008.

The firm said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange that its EBITDA increased 9 percent to P2.7 billion during the period, for an EBITDA margin of 72 percent.

Gross revenues increased by 8 percent to P3.8 billion, largely due to expanded rental revenues brought in by three new malls opened in 2007 namely, SM City Bacolod, SM City Taytay, and SM Supercenter Muntinlupa.

For the first quarter of 2008, rental revenues from all the malls, which accounted for 85 percent of total revenues, grew 10 percent to P3.3 billion.

Same store rental growth was at 5 percent despite the ongoing redevelopment plan in SM Megamall and SM North Edsa.

The absence of blockbuster movies shown during the period resulted in a flat growth for cinema ticket sales.

Meanwhile, as expected on account of the new mall openings last year, operating expenses increased by 6 percent to P1.6 billion.

In spite of this, however, operating income grew by 9 percent to P2.2 billion during the period mainly due to cost saving measures implemented in the malls.

SM Prime president Hans Sy said ‘SM Prime continued to exhibit growth in the first quarter amid a more challenging environment, as we stay focused on making SM malls an exciting place to shop, dine and spend time with family and friends. As such, we are moving ahead with our expansion program as planned.’

This year, SM Prime is set to open SM City Marikina in Metro Manila, SM City Baliuag in Bulacan, and SM Supercenter Rosales in Pangasinan, increasing the total number of malls to 33.

SM Malls currently being expanded are SM Megamall and SM City Fairview.

Total GFA will reach 4.2 million sqm by the end of the year.