SM Investments raises full-year capex to as much as P115 billion for expansion

Sy family-led SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) will boost its capital spending this year by up to 44 percent as the country’s largest conglomerate intensifies its expansion plans in the provinces, mainly through property ventures.

Franklin Gomez, SMIC senior vice president, on Wednesday said they would earmark up to P115 billion in capital expenditures this year, with P100 billion going to property giant SM Prime Holdings Inc. alone.

Gomez said the total excluded the capital spending of the company’s banks—BDO Unibank Inc. and China Banking Corp.

“These are all the consolidated subsidiaries … the biggest driver or that is SM Prime; they have been public about their intention to spend P100 billion this year so they will be the biggest component,” Gomez added.

SM Prime earlier said they planned to open four new malls in the country this year, spanning 400,000 square meters of gross floor area.

On the housing side, SM Prime president Jeffrey Lim said they would launch up to 10,000 units of residential developments, mainly mid-rise buildings, through SM Development Corp.

These will be located in Northern Luzon and the Visayas and Mindanao, according to Lim.

For offices, the developer said their new projects would span 130,000 square meters of gross floor area within their mall complexes.

The parent firm also declared nearly P11 billion in cash dividends, or P9 per share. This is higher than the P9.2 billion, or P7.50 per share, declared the previous year.

“For the third year in a row, we have substantially raised our dividends, which now meet the levels we achieved before the pandemic,” SMIC president and CEO Frederic DyBuncio said in a statement. “This is the result of the strong performance by the group,” he said.

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The conglomerate saw its net income swell by 25 percent to P77 billion last year due to record profits from its banking units.

This year, SMIC said they would focus on provincial expansion to allow more access to modern retailing, financial services and integrated property developments.

On the retail side, chief financial officer Jonathan Ng said they were looking at opening around 100 department and specialty stores, as well as supermarkets.

Alfamart, their mini grocery format, is also set to increase its store network by at least 400.