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By Likha C. Cuevas-Miel, Reporter
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.
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