The family of retail tycoon Henry Sy will build its fourth mall in China next year and may possibly set up shop in India and Vietnam, according to a high-ranking company official.

SM Prime Holdings president Hans Sy said the new mall will rise on a seven-hectare property it acquired with some partners in Chong Quien.

The move signifies the Sy family’s strong confidence in the Chinese mainland’s booming economy. Sy said the new mall, slated for opening in early 2009, will most probably retain Walmart as its anchor tenant due to the good relationship they had built over the years.

Walmart is the anchor tenant for the Sy group’s first three malls in China which include the 1.38-million square foot SM Xiamen which opened in 2001, the 1.89-million square foot SM Jinjiang which opened in 2005 and the 1.39-million square foot SM Chengdu which opened  just last year.

Sy said the group may also allot about 30 percent of the property for development of residential condominiums which could either be undertaken by SM Prime, SM Development Corp. or the new Shoemart, which has recently been restructured as the SM group’s new property holding company.

Sy said it received several invitations to invest in other countries like India and Vietnam but nothing has been formalized yet.

“It takes a lot of know-how to operate a mall and we are getting recognized for that even overseas specially after we built the Mall of Asia,�? he said.

Sy said the group is still awaiting the valuation being done by Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. and Macquarie Securities (Asia) Pte Ltd. with respect to a proposal to transfer ownership of its three malls in China to SM Prime, which operates SM Supermarket and Shoemart stores in the Philippines.

The group earlier said it plans to have 10 malls in China over the next three years to capitalize on China’s growing economy and population which is 15 times that of the Philippines.

“We’d rather not be headstrong although we can acquire more than 20 properties at once if we want,�? Sy said. In another development, SM Investments Corp. chief finance officer Jose T. Sio said bulk of the proceeds from the recent divestment of its shares in San Miguel Corp. will be used to cover the acquisition of Equitable PCIBank.

The company has set aside P13.5 billion for this. The SM group expects to receive P27.1 billion from the sale of its shareholdings in San Miguel. Other proceeds from the sale will be used to fund investments in SMIC’s three other core businesses which include retailing, shopping mall operations and property development.

SMIC has earmarked P25 billion for its capital expenditures next year.