SM Prime Holdings Inc., the country’s leading integrated property company, said Monday it posted a net income of P8.8 billion in the first quarter, up 16 percent from P7.6 billion in the same period last year, on the back of steady growth in rental revenues and residential sales.
SM Prime said in a disclosure to the stock exchange consolidated revenues grew 14 percent to P26.5 billion from P23.3 billion a year earlier while operating income increased 17 percent to P13 billion from P11 billion.
The property firm attributed the strong first-quarter performance to the consistent growth in rental income and residential sales.
“SM Prime continues to benefit from the overall growth of the Philippine economy that boosts the household income of most families. We are optimistic that we will sustain this performance this year as we continuously expand our core businesses in developing provincial cities across the country,” said SM Prime president Jeffrey Lim.
The property firm’s mall business, which accounted for 56 percent of the consolidated revenue, reported revenue growth of P15 billion in the first three months, up from P13.9 billion in the same period last year.
New malls that were opened in 2017 and 2018 helped deliver the company’s P12.9-billion mall rental revenues which grew 8 percent from last year’s P11.9 billion. The mall business also maintained a 7-percent same-mall-sales growth in the first quarter.
SM Prime is scheduled to open four new malls this year, including SM Center Dagupan in Pangasinan, SM City Olongapo Central in Zambales, SM City Butuan in the Caraga region and SM Mindpro Citimall in Zamboanga City.
The group’s residential business led by SM Development Corp. recorded a 23-percent increase in revenue in the first quarter to P9.2 billion from P7.5 billion a year ago. The group’s operating income improved 41 percent to P3.35 billion from P2.38 billion.
SMDC’s reservation sales increased 20 percent in terms of sales value to P17.8 billion in the first quarter from P14.8 billion in the same period of 2018.
This translated into a 19-percent growth to 4,585 units from 3,894 units last year.
SM Prime is scheduled to launch 15,000 to 20,000 residential units across the company’s high-rise-building, mid-rise-building, and single-detached house and lot projects this year.
SM Prime’s other businesses such as hotels, office, and convention centers registered revenues of P2.3 billion in January to March, up 14 percent from a year ago.
The commercial properties group currently has 11 office buildings with a combined gross floor area of 642,000 square meters. The company is set to launch this year its first campus-office building NU Tower in the Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City.
The hotel and convention center unit has a portfolio of six hotels with more than 1,500 rooms, four convention centers, and three trade halls.
The company opened on April 2 the Park Inn by Radisson-Iloilo and is set to open Park Inn by Radisson-North Edsa in the second half.