SM opens 50th mall in Rizal

MANILA, Philippines – SM Prime Holdings, Inc opened its 50th mall, the SM Center Angono in Rizal on Friday, November 14.

The 41,481-square meter (sqm) mall adds to the total floor plate of SM Prime to 6.4 million sqm of retail space – the largest footprint in the country achieved in less than 3 decades.

SM Angono, located in the “Arts Capital of the Philippines,” will have Savemore, considered as the biggest supermarket in the municipality. Other tenants include Ace Hardware, Watsons, and BDO Unibank. It will also have 229 parking and motorcycle slots.

SM Angono is the third mall in Rizal province after SM City Masinag and SM City Taytay.

SM Prime President Hans T. Sy said that the company will continue to expand and improve the” look and feel of our existing malls to keep them current and exciting for our customers.”

Sy said that SM malls not only boost asset values in surrounding areas, they also set the stage for further growth, increased productivity, promote job and wealth creation, environmental sustainability, and positive social interaction.

“More importantly, they bring families and friends together,” Sy said in a statement.

In 1983, SM Prime built its very first mall in 1983 on North EDSA, Metro Manila’s main thoroughfare. Built on a vacant swamp away from the center of the metropolis, today, the mall draws a foot traffic of about 400,000 per day.

Among its 50 malls, 3 are included in the world’s list 10 largest malls: SM Megamall, SM North EDSA, and SM Mall of Asia with a combined gross floor area of 1.4 million sqm.

In 1991, SM opened SM Megamall EDSA Mandaluyong with only 331,680 sqm. Now, it is the country’s largest following several expansion projects, most recently the Mega Fashion Hall building that houses the flagship H&M store in the Philippines and other aspirational stores and dining outlets.

In 2006, SM opened the Mall of Asia on a 60-hectare reclaimed property in Pasay City. To date, the mall has become a major attraction for both locals and tourists with its over 800 retail and food outlets and a view of Manila Bay.

Over the years, SM has put up new malls in many parts of the country, building 3 to 4 malls annually regardless of the economic and financial situation of the country.

“We are very pleased to open our 50^th mall and we look forward to bringing more malls to Filipinos into the regions in the coming years,” Sy said in a statement.

SM Prime reported an 11.8% increase in consolidated net income in the first 9 months of 2014 to P13.5 billion ($300.47 million*) from P12 billion ($267.08 million) in the same period in 2013. (READ: SMIC net income down 2.1% in Jan-Sept)

Consolidated revenues also grew 8.5% to P47.8 billion ($1.06 billion) in the January-September period from P44 billion ($979.30 million) the previous year due to strong retail revenues and improving real estate sales. – Rappler.com 

*$1 = P44.93