MANILA, Philippines - SM Prime Holdings Inc., the umbrella property firm of Henry Sy’s SM Group, completed the purchase a community mall in Cabanatuan City to team up with its upcoming large-scale shopping center in Nueva Ecija’s capital.
“This March, we will be launching one of our acquired malls which is the Megacenter in Cabanatuan,” SM Prime president Hans Sy said in an interview last week.
Megacenter is a five-story mall previously owned and operated by CHAS Realty and Development Corp.
Sy did not disclose the acquisition amount. He, however, said SM will retain the Megacenter brand.
“Everybody there knows Megacenter so I do not really need to rebrand it,” Sy said.
SM Prime is also set to open its new SM mall in Cabanatuan by the end of the year.
Aside from SM Cabanatuan, SM Prime is launching this year three other malls which are located in Sangandaan in Caloocan, San Mateo in Rizal, and Trece Martires in Cavite.
SM Seaside Cebu, meanwhile, could be the fifth mall to be launched this year but its completion date is still tentative, Sy said.
As the country’s largest mall developer, Sy said SM Prime remains on the lookout for possible acquisitions or joint venture deals with other retailers in the country.
“We are open to buy existing malls and rebrand them,” Sy said.
“First thing I look into is the location. If the location is good, there is a big chance. It’s not limited on price alone because sometimes it’s cheap but it’s not located on a good location,” he added.
The SM Group in 2013 bought into the Waltermart Group of Companies, resulting into a 50-50 partnership between the Sy family and Lim family.
SM did not take over the management and business of Waltermart but instead gave the latter financial muscle for the expansion of its malls and supermarkets.