Thursday, July 14, 2011
The Daily Tribune By Danessa O. Rivera

SM Prime Holdings Inc. seeks to expand its reach in China by opening at least three malls in the mainland while looking at more sites for new malls in three years.
SM Prime CFO Jeffrey Lim said the mall developer is looking at more sites as its projects are almost done in Xinjiang and in Quanzhou.
“We will open over the next three years, three to four malls (while) we are looking at sites which is more on the land banking first as we will have to work on schedule — between three to five years development,” he added.
He noted that two of the new malls to be opened are located in lots of up to eight hectares. “We are still negotiating but we are still in the budget for the year,” Lim said, noting that a benchmark investment of a mall depends on the location and the size.
For its plans in Hong Kong, Lim said SM Prime is still on target for a mall in the territory worth $500 million by either 2013 or 2014.