SM Prime Holdings, Inc. was awarded a deal to reclaim and develop land in the central Philippine province of Cebu in a project valued at P138 billion ($3.1 billion).
 
The 1,500 hectares (3,707 acres) redevelopment may be completed in eight years, SM Prime Executive Vice President Jeffrey Lim said in a mobile-phone message Friday.
 
Adelino Sitoy, mayor of the town of Cordova, confirmed the venture with SM Prime, subject to the approval of President Benigno Aquino.
 
“This will be the biggest reclamation in the country,” Sitoy said in a phone interview. Cebu province, including Cordova, will have 51 percent of the reclaimed area where a cruise ship terminal, a university, a hospital and mixed-use developments are planned, the mayor said.
 
SM Prime, owned by the nation’s richest tycoon Henry Sy, is also waiting for national government approval on two reclamation proposals in the neighboring cities of Paranaque and Pasay in Metro Manila worth a combined 100 billion pesos. The Cebu Provincial Reclamation Authority will endorse the project to the main agency in Manila next week, Sitoy said.
 
“SM is replicating the success of the Mall of Asia reclamation project in Manila,” said Anton Alfonso, an analyst at RCBC Securities Inc. in the Philippine capital. “This project will cement and expand SM’s footprint in a province that is considered as the economic center in that part of the country.”
 
Mall of Asia, one of the biggest shopping centers in the Philippines, owned by SM Prime, is located on reclaimed land along Manila Bay. The Cordova deal was reported by Manila Bulletin.
 
SM Prime rose 1.5 percent to 19.86 pesos at the midday trading break in Manila. Shares of SM Investments Corp., parent of SM Prime, gained 1.1 percent to 910 pesos.
 
The reclamation will triple Cordova’s current 800 hectares of land, while reducing its 3,500-hectare fishing area by more than a third, Sitoy said. It’s also an effort to clean up the town’s image after revelations it had become a center for online child pornography.