SM Investments Corp., the holding company of tycoon Henry Sy, allocated P73 billion for 2017 capital expenditures to finance the expansion of its property, retail and banking businesses.
SMIC said in an investors presentation posted on its website the conglomerate earmarked P62.7 billion for property unit SM Prime Holdings Inc. to build new malls, office, hotels and residential units.
The conglomerate also budgeted P5.2 billion for its retail business which will primarily be used to open new stores and renovate existing one and P5 billion for its banking units to be used for branch expansion and IT enhancement projects.
Meanwhile, the conglomerate plans to continue developing business process outsourcing towers within its malls.
The group plans to complete four additional BPO towers with a total leasable space of 121,572 square meters.
These BPO towers are located in SM Cagayan de Oro (19,565 sqm), SM Southmall Tower (55,092 sqm), SM Bacolod (16,000 sqm) and SM San Pablo (9,196 sqm).
The conglomerate opened BPO towers in SM City Clark and SM City Sta. Rosa.
It has another 27 total available sites for BPO buildings that could potentially offer 252,028 sqm of additional leasable space.
These planned BPO towers are expected to boost the company’s recurring earnings.
The group’s property unit SM Prime Holdings Inc. earlier said it planned to open four malls this year and launch 15,000 to 18,000 residential units.
SM Investments booked an 8-percent increase in net income to P31.2 billion in 2016, on sustained growth of core businesses while consolidated revenues climbed 9 percent to P362.8 billion, up from P332.8 billion in 2015.
The group’s property business accounted for 39 percent of total earnings, with banks comprising 37 percent and retail, 24 percent.
Aside from core businesses, SM Investments also has a significant stake in entertainment and leisure developer Belle Corp., copper producer Atlas Consolidated Mining Corp. and community mall developer CityMalls Commercial Corp.
