IF consumers are cutting back on spending, they certainly aren’t doing so within the massive box-like structures which today form the backbone of Henry Sy’s retail empire.

On Thursday listed SM Prime Holdings Inc., developer and operator of the  country’s 34 SM malls, said its profits in the second quarter rose 8 percent to P1.7 billion on revenues, 14 percent higher to P5 billion.

The company credited the growth to an active retail environment that continues to defy “weak market expectations amid an ongoing global recession.” And, money from overseas Filipinos, which continues to post year- on-year growth, has also aided the conglomerate which is said to capture almost a third of these remittances.

“We are pleased to have met our targets for the first half of this year in spite of the ongoing global financial crisis. Our results reinforce our belief in the resilience of the Philippine economy,” said SM Prime president Hans T. Sy.

SM Prime noted as primary drivers the opening of more malls, including the openings of SM City Marikina, SM City Rosales, SM City Baliwag and SM City Naga. Also, the expansion of SM North Edsa, SM Megamall and SM Fairview.

At present, the group’s malls register an average occupancy rate of 96 percent.

The strong showing in the second quarter pushed the conglomerate to post higher first-semester profits of P3.4 billion, over  P3.2 billion in the comparative period last year. Total revenues, likewise, rose 15 percent to P9.6 billion in the first half of this year. Of this amount, almost 88 percent was generated from the mall’s rental operations.

SM Prime plans to open three more shopping centers in China until 2013 and for the rest of 2009 it will open SM City Rosario in Cavite in November and SM City Pamplona in Las Piñas in October, bringing the total number to 36. It will open its 37th mall by end-2010  in Calamba, Laguna.