ABS-CBNnews.com

MANILA, Philippines - SM Prime Holdings is opening its 52nd shopping mall in the Philippines on Friday.

SM Prime, owned by the family of the Philippines' richest man Henry Sy, said SM City San Mateo is its fourth mall within Rizal province. It also has malls in Taytay, Masinag and Angono.

The new mall has 80,043 square meters (sqm) in gross floor area (GFA), boosting SM Prime's total retail space to 6,612,813 sqm, the largest footprint in the Philippines.

"The economy’s continued expansion has encouraged major developments in the provinces where we see the next wave of growth emerging. Our mall expansions in the coming years are focused on these new growth cities where incomes and aspirations are showing significant improvements," SM Prime President Hans T. Sy said in a statement.

SM City San Mateo is located along General Luna Avenue. It already has an 86 percent occupancy rate, with anchor tenants such as Ace Hardware, BDO, SM Appliance Center, SM Cinema, SM Supermarket, Surplus Shop, The SM Store, and Watsons.

While the first three levels have shopping, dining and entertainment spaces, the fourth level will offer office spaces for BPO sector.

This is the second SM mall to open this year, after SM Megacenter Cabanatuan opened last April 24.

SM Prime plans to have 55 malls in the Philippines by the end of the year, with the scheduled opening of SM Center Sangandaan in Caloocan, SM Seaside City Cebu and SM City Cabanatuan.

It also plans to open a new mall in China - SM City Zibo - this year. It currently has five malls in China.