THE Philippines’ biggest mall developer and operator disclosed on Tuesday that its profit for the first nine months climbed at a slower pace than last year.

SM Prime Holdings Inc. told the Philippine Stock Exchange that its consolidated net income for January to September grew by 9 percent to P4.7 billion from a year ago. However, this was slower than the 10.6-percent increase posted last year.

Revenues rose by 10 percent to P12.8 billion. This period’s revenues include SM malls Xiamen and Jinjiang in Southern China and Chengdu in Central China, all of which the company acquired late last year.

“It is very encouraging for us to see steady growth in SM Prime’s operations this year at the back of a very challenging business climate. We feel fortunate that Asia appears to be in a much better position to weather the global financial turmoil,” Hans Sy, the company’s president, said.

About P11.1 billion of the revenues for the three quarters came from rental fees, which rose 14 percent, and was the biggest revenue generator for the company. The improvement was due to same store rental growth that climbed by 5 percent and from additional floor space generated by new malls SM City Marikina, SM City Bacolod, SM City Taytay and SM Supercenter Muntinlupa.

In addition, SM City Pampanga, SM City Cebu and SM Mall of Asia expanded, which added 475,000 square meters to the company’s total gross floor area (GFA). Average occupancy rate for these new malls now stand at 94 percent.

Cinema ticket sales fell by 7 percent to P1.3 billion because of “a dearth of blockbuster movies” during the period.

Operating expenses for the three quarters climbed by 9 percent to P5.9 billion year-on-year and this single digit growth was due to cost-saving measures undertaken in all SM malls. However, spiraling fuel and power costs during the period grew by 12 percent to P7 billion, dragging down operating income.

For the remaining two months this year, the company will open SM Supercenter Rosales in Pangasinan and SM City Baliuag in Bulacan. The new 15,000-square meter Atrium in SM Megamall will open this month while the expansion of SM City North EDSA and SM City Fairview will be completed next year. By year-end the company will have 33 malls nationwide and total GFA will reach 4.7 million square meters, including malls in China.