Billionaire Sy Family’s SM Earmarks Up To $1.6 Billion To Expand Philippine Property, Retail Footprint

SM Investments—controlled by the family of the late billionaire Henry Sy Sr—has earmarked as much as 90 billion pesos ($1.6 billion) in capital expenditures this year to expand its real estate and retail footprint across the Philippines, betting the country’s economic growth will remain robust.

“Opportunities for growth remain high,” SM Investments president Frederic C DyBuncio said at the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting on Wednesday. “Heading into 2023, we remain optimistic as a group. The majority of our expansion is focused in emerging regional centers outside of Metro Manila. Our businesses are well-positioned and have clear strategies to participate in the country’s strong growth.”

SM Prime—the country’s largest real estate developer and shopping mall operator—will spend 80 billion pesos of the group’s budget to open three new shopping malls in 2023. It currently has 82 shopping malls across the archipelago, of which 58 are outside Metro Manila. The company, which is building 84 residential projects, also plans to launch between 15,000 to 20,000 residential units for sale this year.

The developer’s biggest project is the $2 billion reclamation project in Manila Bay where it plans to build office and residential towers along with a commercial complex on some 360 hectares of reclaimed land near SM Prime’s Mall of Asia, the largest shopping complex in the country. The project will partly be funded by the $1 billion proceeds from the proposed initial public offering of its real estate investment trust—which will own an initial portfolio of up to 15 shopping malls—in the second half of this year.

Separately, SM Retail plans to add 400 new retail stores this year. It currently operates over 3,500 outlets across the country, generating revenues of 378.2 billion pesos last year.

The conglomerate, which also has interests in banking, logistics, power and mining, generated revenues of 553.8 billion pesos last year. It traces its roots to Henry Sy Sr., who sold overrun shoes in 1958 at a store in Manila he aptly called Shoemart. Following Sy’s death in 2019, his six children—Teresita, Elizabeth, Henry Jr, Hans, Herbert and Harley—inherited his fortune. The family is the richest in the Philippines with a net worth of $12.6 billion.