Asiamoney’s article, "The Champions of Asian Business," acknowledged the familiar names in the best-managed companies poll as "the greats of Asian business who didn’t get where they are for nothing." Respondents to the annual worldwide poll voted SM Prime the best in corporate strategy, management of financial accounts, accuracy of forecasts and treatment of minority stockholders. Respondents consisted of fund managers, chief investment officers, and heads of research of fund management firms and brokerage houses in Asia-Pacific, including Australia and Japan, Europe and the US.
The article quoted a Philippine equity portfolio manager attributing SM Prime’s consistent earnings growth and healthy return on equity over the years to the company’s solid franchise and corporate vision and its ability to weather any economic downturn to its healthy cash flows and manageable debt levels. In addition, it cited a head of research of one of the largest global investment houses who noted the SM Group’s history of taking the country’s crises as opportunities to expand by accumulating land and opening malls.
SM Prime, a publicly listed company, has 10 strategically located malls – six in Metro Manila, and four in Cavite and Pampanga in Luzon, and Cebu and Iloilo in the Visayas. It has revolutionized Philippine lifestyle, with its malls’ 1.65 million square meters of gross floor area drawing some one million people on weekdays and around 50 percent more per day on weekends. The one-stop shopping malls, with their 3,000 tenants, over 100 cinemas, and ice-skating, bowling, and karaoke centers and the like, have become bustling social centers of world-class environment where families and individuals of all ages shop, dine, date, meet, and enjoy a full range of service and entertainment facilities. The malls have continuously enjoyed high customer patronage from all income classes.
SM Prime is currently constructing two other malls, one in Sucat, Parañaque, in Metro Manila, and the other in Davao, in Mindanao. Both malls are scheduled for completion and opening in year 2001. In addition, SM Prime has a land bank of other properties totaling 117 hectares in strategic areas in the country, all intended for mall development.
The company has had a track record of excellent annual net income growth since it was incorporated in 1994. Amid the Asian financial crisis, it has shown robust growth and a consistently solid financial position.
SM Prime is globally multi-awarded and consistently cited for its market performance and management.