SM Prime Holdings Corp. will spend some P200 billion during the next two to three years in a move its top executive said would allow the country’s largest property company to achieve its target of doubling its income by 2018.

SM Prime President Hans Sy said the company “has a basis” to achieve its goal in just three years by further developing its existing assets and expanding to other areas in the country and also in China.

“Our integrated strategy of developing lifestyle cities will allow us to create sustained value across real-estate spectrum,” Sy said.

Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer Jeffrey Lim said that between 30 percent and 40 percent of the amount will be sourced externally, either through flotation of bonds or bank loans.

The rest of the amount, around P120 billion ($2.7 billion), will be sourced internally, according to Lim.

“We will evaluate opportunities as we move forward,” he added.

Sy and Lim said the capital expenditure (capex) would include investments in China, wherein SM Prime is developing  residential projects within its mall sites there, such as in Chengdu and in Jinjang.

Sy said the company may spend some P20 billion a year in China. He added that by 2018, the company would have about nine malls from its current five in the world’s second-largest economy.

Each of the company’s residential sites in China would have a capacity of more than a thousand housing units, officials said.

But SM Prime will carry out the projects in phases of about 300 to 400 units per phase, documents provided by Sy’s office said.

However, Sy said China will still account for about 10 percent of SM Prime’s business by 2018, or almost the same ratio as today, since the company also expands its Philippine operation at an even faster rate.

Last year the company unveiled a five-year expansion plan, including spending about P400 billion.

SM Prime executives said the spending is expected to double the company’s current net income and revenues before the end of the decade.

For this year SM Prime will spend almost P80 billion. The company’s capex last year was about P60 billion to P65 billion. The company plans to increase its mall space in the Philippines by 12 percent. It also intends to launch five high-rise residential projects with at least 11,000 units.

SM Prime will also open an office building on a shopping complex in Pasay City that it owns, bringing the company’s total office portfolio to five.

SM Prime allocated 70 percent of its capex for project development, while the rest is for land banking.

This year’s Philippine mall expansions are geared toward the provincial areas, as SM Prime will open shopping centers in San Mateo in Rizal, Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija and in Cebu.

These will be followed by the opening of a mall in Sangandaan, Caloocan. SM Prime is also expanding existing malls in Lipa, Batangas and in Iloilo.

Combined, these malls will add almost 800,000 square meters of gross floor area. These will increase SM Prime’s total mall space by 12 percent to 7.3 million square meters by end-2015.

Among these developments, the biggest is the shopping mall in Cebu, within the SM Seaside Complex in the South Road Properties in the southern Philippine province.