The Philippine’s largest mall operator SM Prime Holdings has opened its fourth mall in China, the world’s second largest economy.
The mall is located at city of Suzhou, in the province of Jiangsu, the Chinese province with the largest population density and home to leading exporters of chemicals, electronic equipment and textiles. Suzhou city has an estimated 6.3 million population and is popular with tourists for its cultural attractions like gardens, temples and ancient water towns.
The new mall’s gross floor area measures 72,552sqm of which 89 per cent will be for lease.
SM Suzhou adds to the three existing SM malls in China, the SM Chengdu (located in the Sichuan province), SM Xiamen and SM Jinjiang (both in Fujian province). The three existing malls have posted 11.5 per cent retail sales growth in the past five years.
“We are very pleased to open the doors of our newest mall, SM City Suzhou in China. The mall’s launching affirms SM Prime’s keen objective to continue growing and expanding in areas of opportunity, even in those beyond the boundaries of the Philippines. It also confirms that the Filipinos have the needed knowledge, skills and talents to compete in a global arena. Thus, the company intends to open several more new malls in China in the coming years,” Hans Sy, president of SM Prime, said.
SM Prime targets to open one mall in China yearly. The group expects to achieve gross mall space of 1.5 million sqm by the end of 2014.
In total, SM has 45 malls in Philippines and China, with a total of 5.7 million sqm gross floor area.
In the Philippines, the group also plans to expand its malls in cities of San Fernando in Pampanga, Dasmariñas in Cavite, Olongapo in Zambales and Davao in Mindanao.
