(Source: Business Mirror | February 15, 2018)
The shopping mall empire of country’s richest man Henry Sy, Sr. continues its provincial expansion with the opening of SM Center Imus in Cavite.
In a statement issued Wednesday, SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SM Prime) said it will be opening the mall on Friday (Feb. 16) with 90% of its leasing space already awarded.
Located along NIA Road, Barangay Bukandala in Imus, Cavite, the mall has a gross floor area (GFA) of 13,000 square meters (sq.m.). It will house staple tenants of other SM malls, such as SM Supermarket, SM Appliance Center, ACE Hardware, Miniso, Watsons, and BDO Unibank, Inc.
“The opening of SM Center Imus marks another milestone of SM Prime. This mall is located right at the heart of Imus City to provide more convenience to the residents as well as guests of this historic city,” SM Prime President Jeffrey C. Lim was quoted as saying in a statement.
SM Center Imus will be the company’s sixth mall in the Cavite area, after SM City Bacoor, SM City Dasmariñas, SM City Molino, SM City Rosario, and SM City Trece Martires.
In 2017, SM Prime had a total of 67 malls in the country with a total GFA of 8.03 million sq.m.
Aside from SM Center Imus, SM Prime is planning to build 21 new malls, located mostly in the provinces, within the next three years.
This year, the company is set to complete SM City Urdaneta Central, SM City Telebastagan, SM City Legaspi, SM City Ormoc, and SM City Dagupan.
In 2019, SM Prime will be complete SM Daet, SM Butuan, SM Olongapo Central, SM Balanga Bataan, SM Sorsogon, SM Tagum, SM City Tuguegarao, SM Mindoro, and SM Grand Central.
Seven more will be opened by 2020: SM City Roxas, SM Calamba Turbina, SM Tanza, SM San Fernando in La Union, SM Laoag, SM Zamboanga, and SM Malolos.
To finance the construction of these malls, SM Prime will be issuing fixed rate bonds with a base size of P15 billion, with an oversubscription option of P5 billion. The bonds have maturities of five and seven years.
Local debt watcher assigned the issuance the highest credit rating of Prs Aaa, indicating SM Prime’s ability to meet its financial obligation.
The issuance will be the third tranche of the company’s P60-billion shelf registration program with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
SM Prime booked a net income attributable to the parent of P20.05 billion in the nine months ending September 2017, 14.9% higher year on year, as revenues grew 11% to P64.7 billion during the same period.
Shares in SM Prime lost five centavos or 0.14% to end at P36.10 each at the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
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