SM PRIME Holdings Inc., the Philippines’ biggest shopping mall developer and operator, posted a 9-percent growth in consolidated net income to P4.7 billion in the first nine months.

It said revenues grew 10 to P12.8 billion during the same period, while Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) also rose by 10 percent to P8.9 billion for an Ebitda margin of 69 percent.

The results included the operations of the three SM malls in China following their acquisition late last year. The SM China malls are located in the cities of Xiamen and Jinjiang in Southern China and Chengdu in Central China.

SM Prime president Hans T. Sy said it was very encouraging to see steady growth in SM Prime’s operations this year on 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,’ he said.

From January to September, rental fees still accounted for the biggest share of SM Prime’s consolidated revenues at P11.1 billion, up 14 percent year-on-year. The increase came from both same-store rental growth and from additional floor space generated by new malls, namely SM City Marikina last September, and SM City Bacolod, SM City Taytay and SM Supercenter Muntinlupa in 2007. In addition, three existing malls expanded last year. These are SM City Pampanga, SM City Cebu and SM Mall of Asia. Combined, the new malls and expansions added 475,000 square meters to SM Prime’s total gross floor area. The average occupancy rate for the new malls now stands at 94 percent.