SM Prime 9-month profit up 11% at P4.3B

SM Prime Holdings Inc., the country's largest retailer, reported a net income of P4.3 billion for the first nine months of 2007, an 11-percent improvement from the profit recorded in the same period last year. In a statement, the company added that its earnings before income, tax, depreciation and amortization grew by 18 percent to P7.9 billion. SM Prime said gross revenues grew 19 percent to P11.2 billion as the company benefited from its continued mall expansion program. Rental revenues for the nine-month period increased 19 percent to P9.2 billion, while cinema ticket sales posted a 21-percent growth to P1.4 billion. Operating expenses in the same period increased by 21 percent to P5.0 billion from P4.1 billion. “SM Prime is well on track to meet its full-year target, and we look forward to a vibrant Christmas holiday season to boost our fourth quarter results. We also expect November to be a month of opening new malls in Taytay, Muntinlupa, and a strip mall to be called San Miguel by the Bay, which is like an extension of the SM Mall of Asia," Hans Sy, SM Prime president, said. By end 2007, total gross floor area for all SM Prime malls is projected to reach 3.9 million square meters. - Cheryl Arcibal, GMANews.TV