Net profit of SM Prime Holdings Inc., the country’s leading integrated property company, surged 70 percent in the first nine months of the year to P22.9 billion, boosted by a one-time trading gain of P7.4 billion on marketable securities in the first quarter of the year.
Net income on a recurring basis increased 15 percent to P15.5 billion in the same nine-month period.
SM Prime said in a disclosure to the stock exchange consolidated revenues rose nine percent to P52.2 billion on year.
Recurring income grew 15 percent in the third quarter to P4.2 billion, while revenues climbed 13 percent to P16.2 billion.
“We expect SM Prime’s growth to be sustained as we continue to increase our mall footprint by 13 percent this year,” SM Prime president Hans Sy said.
“We are excited to launch SM Seaside Cebu later this year, a landmark project in the Visayas region. We see Metro Cebu as one of our important growth corridors following our growth track in Metro Manila,” he added.
Rental revenues from retail and commercial spaces, which accounted for 56 percent to the consolidated sales, increased 11 percent to P29.4 billion from P26.4 billion in the first nine months of 2014.
SM Prime attributed the growth in rental revenues from new malls and the expansion of shopping spaces in existing malls in 2013 and 2014.
SM Prime’s real estate sales, which account for 32 percent of the consolidated revenues, increased four percent to P16.6 billion from P16 billion on year.
The company attributed the improvement in real estate sales to the increase in the sales take-up and higher construction accomplishment of projects launched by SM Development Corp. in 2010 to 2013
Reservation sales grew 19 percent year-on-year to 10,297 units in the first nine months of 2015, reflecting a 22-percent increase in value worth P28.4 billion from P23.3 billion on year.
SM Development alone posted a 23-percent increase in net income P3.8 billion during the nine-month period from P3.1 billion in 2014.
SM Prime by the end of 2015 will have 55 malls in the Philippines and six in China with an estimated combined gross floor area of 8.3 million square meters.
SM Prime plans to launch about 12,000 to 15,000 units this year as the company’s commercial properties group is set to launch FiveE-comCenter this month. Its Three E-Com Center is under construction and is scheduled for opening in 2018.
For hotels and convention centers, Park Inn by Radisson Clark in Pampanga is expected to open in December 2015, while Conrad Manila in the Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City will operate in the first half of 2016.