THE Philippines’ largest mall owner and operator said last year’s profits went up on the back of higher mall space rentals as it added three new malls and expanded existing ones under its helm. 

In a statement, SM Prime Holdings Inc. said its net income rose 10 percent to P6 billion year on year as gross revenues climbed 16 percent to P15.3 billion.  “SM Prime successfully met its 2007 targets.

We are satisfied with this achievement, which we owe to all our stakeholders,�? Hans T. Sy, SM Prime president, said.  The company attributed the improvement to rental revenues, which increased by 17 percent to P12.8 billion.

Mall rentals were the largest sales contributor, especially since three new malls were added while three existing ones were expanded. 

The new malls that were inaugurated last year include SM City Bacolod, with a gross floor area of 61,413 square meters, the SM City Taytay at 91,920 square meters and SM Supercenter Muntinlupa at 53,986 square meters.

Those that were expanded include SM City-Pampanga, SM City Cebu, and SM Mall of Asia.  Cinema ticket sales grew 15 percent to P1.8 billion year on year, driven by the additional 3,506 cinema seats in the new malls, bringing the total to almost 122,830.

Ticket sales improvement was also due to the “sustained popularity�? of the 3D-capable IMAX Theater as well as the showing of blockbuster movies such as Spiderman 3, Transformers and Harry Potter 5 among others, the company said. 

Income from operations rose 14 percent to P8.7 billion over the previous year while operating expenses increased grew 19 percent to P6.6 billion. At end-2007, the company had 30 malls nationwide, 13 of which are in Metro Manila with an aggregate gross floor area of 3.9 million square meters and average daily pedestrian count of 2.5 million. 

This year, the mall operator will open three new malls that include SM Supercenter Rosales in Pangasinan, SM City Baliuag in Bulacan and SM City Marikina. It would also expand SM City Fairview and SM Megamall.

Total cost for these projects would reach P6 billion. By year-end, the company would have 33 malls in with a combined gross floor area of 4.1 million square meters.