SM malls suffer only minimal damage

MANILA, Philippines - Shopping mall giant SM Prime Holdings Inc. said the damage caused by tropical storm Ondoy was very minimal and had no effect on the company’s financial operations.

Jeffrey Lim, executive vice-president of SM Prime, said while there’s no actual estimate of the damage brought about by Saturday’s deadly typhoon, it was “very minimal”, pointing out that only the basement of its mall in Sta. Mesa, which houses the supermarket and the appliance store, was severely affected.

Lim, however, said its SM Sta. Mesa mall remains open to the public. “We’ve been trying to assess the damage caused by the typhoon since Saturday but it’s very minimal,” he said.

Lim said the company has maintained stable power suppy despite Saturday’s typhoon which dumped more than a month’s volume of average rainfall on Manila and surrounding areas in one 24-hour period, submerging 80 percent of the city.

Lim said it’s business as usual for SM Prime which is set to open SM Center Las Piñas – its 35th shopping mall in the country and its second mall in the city after SM City Southmall. The new shopping center, with a gross floor area of 32,387 square meters, is located along the Alabang-Zapote Road in Barangay Talon, Pamplona, Las Piñas.

SM Prime president Hans Sy said: “We warmly welcome all our loyal customers to our newest mall, SM Center Las Piñas. With its vibrant economy, and eco-friendly environment, Las Piñas provides a good venue for SM malls as we see a huge potential for growth and progress in the city.”

Las Piñas City is consistently recognized as one of the cleanest and greenest cities in Metro Manila and in the Philippines. It was also included in the Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project of the Asian Institute of Management.

The opening of SM Las PInas will bring the group’s total gross floor area to 4.4 million square meters. 

SM Las Pinas is the second mall to be opened by SM Prime so far this year after SM City Naga which was inaugurated last May. The group is expected to open one more mall (SM City Rosario) before the end of the year to bring its total branch network to 36 with an estimated GFA of 4.9 million square meters.

For next year, SM Prime is looking at building a mall in Tarlac, San Pablo, Laguna, Calamba, and Commonwealth. It has set aside P12 billion in capital expenditures this year, P6.5 billion of which will be used to expand its operations domestically while the balance of P5.5 billion will go to its expansion in China. Three new malls in China – Chonggqing, Suzhou, and Zibo – are targeted for opening between 2010 and 2012.

This will add to its three existing malls - SM Xiamen, Jinjiang, and Chengdu.

Suzhou, with a gross floor area of 73,000 sq.m., is under construction and is expected to open early 2010. While Zibo and Chongqing, which has the biggest population in China) arescheduled to open in 2011 and 2012.