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SM Prime Holdings Inc. is poised to acquire three
malls in China owned by the company’s controlling shareholder,
Henry Sy.
In a statement, SM Prime said it
has tapped Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. and Macquire Securities
(Asia) Pte Ltd. as joint financial advisers in evaluating the
potential acquisition of the malls.
Earlier, the SM group was mulling
over whether it would acquire the China malls and fold it under SM
Prime or list under a separate entity that would be listed at the
local or international stock market.
Another option was to register
the malls under a real-estate investment trust (REIT) in China, Hong
Kong or Singapore, since the Philippines is still not conducive for
REITs due to the present tax structure.
Each mall is almost as big as SM
Southmall in Las Piñas.
During the first half this year,
SM Prime’s profits grew 11 percent to P2.9 billion as gross
revenues climbed 22 percent to P7.45 billion over last year due to
its aggressive expansion as the new malls enjoyed high occupancy
rates and record foot traffic.New malls are scheduled to open by the
remainder of the year starting with SM Taytay and SM Supercenter in
Muntinlupa while expansion is going on in SM City Cebu-Annex and SM
City Pampanga.
The Science Discovery Center at
the SM Mall of Asia and the Sunset Strip at the Esplanade are
expected to open by October. By year-end, SM Prime would have 3.9
million square meters of total gross floor area.
--Likha C. Cuevas-Miel
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