SM Prime plans to continue developing SM North Edsa

MALL operator SM Prime Inc. said it will continue to develop its first mall in the country—SM City North Edsa in Quezon City—as it continues to be its flagship mall despite building other bigger shopping malls in the country.

SM Prime Holdings President Hans Sy said the retail landscape in the last 30 years “has become more global and competitive where technology has forever changed the way we live and do things.”

“They said that SM City [North Edsa] would not succeed, but the mall was an instant success,” Sy said.

From a footprint of only 125,000 square meters on opening in 1985, it has grown in size to almost 498,000 sq m. 

From its original shoe-box design, the mall now draws an average foot traffic of 420,000 shoppers a day.

The company said its 30-year-old mall, which is also one of its biggest malls in terms of gross leasable area, will continue to grow “like a vibrant city as it adds more office spaces and a hospitality complex, a unique combination of high-end retail, dining and green spaces, highlighted by a series of five office towers connected by pedestrian sky bridges.”

The mall has gone through several redevelopments which began with the Car Park Plaza in 1988, the SM Annex in 1989, the Block in 2006, The Annex and Interior Zone in 2008, the Sky Garden in 2009 and Northlink in 2010.

In the past years, SM Prime also built new spaces for various concepts such as for business-process outsourcing (BPOs) companies and other private offices to further feed traffic into its malls, especially during weekdays. 

The North Link is a six-story building, while SM Cyber West Avenue is a 15-story building. Both buildings are meant for the BPOs, and are linked via bridge way to the mall.

It also built Grass Residences, a five-tower residential condominium building which stands on a 5-hectare property within the SM City North Edsa Complex.

“We have changed the Filipino lifestyle forever. Our malls are indeed as they are called—cities, places where families and friends gather to shop, eat out, have fun, and even do their business transactions and hear Mass. We have become part of the lives of millions of Filipinos,” Sy said.

Source: by BusinessMirror  / http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/sm-prime-plans-to-continue-developing-sm-north-edsa/

Gaisano to set up P2-B condotel in Albay

LEGAZPI CITY—A P2-billion investment for a condo hotel will be set up in Legazpi City by the Gaisano Group, as a P1.2-billion new mall owned by the Ayala Group is set to open here next week, Albay Gov. Joey Sarte Salceda said.

The Albay governor said the P2-billion condominium-hotel project is in answer to the pressing demand for more hotel rooms in the province.

Albay is targeting 5,000 more hotel rooms by the year 2020.

The new P1.2-billion mall right at the Legazpi business center is owned by the Ayala Group, in partnership with the local Liberty Commercial Center (LCC), Salceda said.

LCC is the Bicol mall-business pioneer since the early 1950s. It started as a grocery in Tabaco City, owned by the local Tan family. It is now operating the LCC Metro in Legazpi and LCC Metro in Naga City.

The site for the fresh Gaisano P2-billion investment, which would house between 600 rooms and 900 rooms, will be at the Gaisano-owned sprawling Landco Business Park right at the back of the Gaisano integrated shopping mall beside the Legazpi terminal.

Gaisano became the first and biggest mall in the Bicol region in 2002, next to the local and oldest LCC mall in the cities of Tabaco and Legazpi in Albay.

Legazpi is the regional center with the Bicol region’s lone five-star Mayon Imperial Hotel built during the early 1970s by the late Highways Minister Baltazar Aquino. It has been reaquired by at least three owners and was renamed the Mayon International hotel. It is now known as The Oriental Hotel operated by the Oriental Hotel Group.

Salceda said that, with the operation of the Bicol International Hotel in Albay, he’s hoping the province’s target of 5,000 more hotel rooms by 2020 from both local and international property developers would be realized. He said he has been in talks with three international investors to build the hotels.

Among the known local developers is the Sunwest Group of companies, owned by Rizaldy Co, who owns the Embarcadero Mall on the Legazpi bayside; the St. Ellis Hotel; and the Misibis Beach Resort and Spa in Bacacay town, one of the 10 outstanding resorts in the world, according to the Philippine Tourism Authority.

Salceda said the province needs more quality hotels and resorts to absorb the growing number of meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions.

The Albay governor narrated that during a recent convention held in the province, 5,000 local guests could not be accommodated in all Albay hotels. He then tapped participants from Albay to accommodate in their residence participants from outside the province.

Salceda said that by the end of 2015, Albay will reach close to 1.1 million tourist arrivals, a 14-percent increase from last year. Hopefully, he said, by 2016, the P4-billion Bicol International Airport will be operational. President Aquino envisioned this airport to operate 24/7 as direct flights would be available.

Eric Tan, Gaisano properties-development manager, said the P2-billion condo-hotel investment will feature a three-building condotel with 10 storys each. He said the condotel would have condominium units available to own.

Source: by Manly Ugalde /  http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/gaisano-to-set-up-p2-b-condotel-in-albay/

Debt-to-GDP ratio drops to 45.3% in September

The country’s debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio as of the end of September dropped to 45.3 percent, slightly lower than last year’s ratio of 46.4 percent.

Department of Finance (DOF) Undersecretary and chief economist Gil S. Beltran said the continuing drop in the debt-to-GDP ratio indicates the country’s stable financial situation to pay off its debts while funding economic and social projects.

Domestic debt-to-GDP ratio is at 29.6 percent, while external debt-to-GDP ratio is at 15.7 percent.

The debt-to-GDP ratio is an economic indicator which shows, among others, a country’s ability to pay off its debt from wealth generated by the economy itself, instead of merely borrowing more money to pay off maturing debts. The fiscal space generated by the government’s higher revenue collection has brought down the debt-to-GDP ratio. This year the budget deficit remained below the target of 2 percent of GDP.

“Compared with the target deficit equivalent to 2 percent of GDP, the end-September actual deficit of 0.27 percent shall enable the government to provide fiscal space to push economic growth to higher levels in the last quarter, even with the ongoing global financial volatilities and threats of El Niño phenomenon,” Beltran said in an economic bulletin.

The DOF said that, despite the lower budget deficit for this year, which amounted to P25.5 billion as of September, government expenditures continued to pick up, especially for projects that have economic and social impact, like infrastructure and social services.

This is expected to continue through 2016, with the government’s proposed budget, including provisions for infrastructure spending next year, equivalent to 5 percent of GDP, while budgets for social services going up by 471 percent from the budget allocated for such services in 2010.

From January to September, total expenditures amounted to P1.63 trillion, or 12 percent higher than comparable figures last year.

Source: by David Cagahastian / http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/debt-to-gdp-ratio-drops-to-45-3-in-september/ 

Insurer looking to fund more infrastructure projects

Sun Life Financial Philippines is looking to invest in more infrastructure projects as part of its investment portfolio because these investments involve long-term investments, which insurance companies are more able than banks to undertake.

Sun Life Financial Philippines President and CEO Riza Mantaring said at the sidelines of the Second annual Sinag Financial Literacy Journalism Awards on Thursday that Sun Life has around P170 billion in its general fund, a portion of which the company is keen on deploying in infrastructure projects.

The Sinag Financial Literacy Journalism Awards is Sun Life Philippines’s annual awards to honor journalists whose body of work helps promote financial literacy among Filipinos.

Mantaring said that, aside from its reported foray into the business of producing power, Sun Life Philippines is also looking at other infrastructure projects that it can either fund or have an equity in because infrastructure projects provide insurance companies with a steady cash flow over a long horizon.

She added that Sun Life Philippines is looking initially at an investment ceiling of P2 billion for each project that the insurer will fund, even as it also starts a due diligence audit.

Many of the projects are proposed to be passed on to Sun Life Philippines by banks because insurance companies are more able to handle longer-term investments than banks, which are in the business of lending money and are therefore required to be more liquid. Mantaring noted that the operations of Sun Life’s main branch in Canada is also into investments in infrastructure, such as toll roads, bridges, and even jail facilities, which Sun Life Philippines is looking to replicate here.

According to current regulations, insurance companies may use a portion of their investible assets on infrastructure assets, subject to approval from the Insurance Commission.

Source: by David Cagahastian /  http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/insurer-looking-to-fund-more-infrastructure-projects/

SM,AYALA TO COMPLETE CEBU PROJECT IN 5 YEARS

The SM and Ayala Groups are set to complete the joint development of a 26-hectare Cebu property in five years instead of 10, the head of SM Prime Holdings Inc. said.

Hans Sy, SM Prime president, told reporters last week that completing the mixed-use development with Ayala Land Inc. would span only five years, considering the small size of the project.

“For that I should give it a good five years,” said Sy.

“That is a very small property which you may be referring to. It is on the adjoining property which we have a tie up with Ayala, because it is about the same size [where SM Seaside City Cebu is]. They will do their share we will do our share… It will be faster,” he added.

Developers usually take 10 years to develop a 20-hectare property.

Separately, SM Prime has a 30-hectare development in the Cebu South Road Properties, where the 450,000 square-meter SM Seaside City is located.

On the 26-hectare joint development with Ayala Land, Sy noted the project components are yet to be finalized with the master plan as the prime and sole blueprint to guide both developers.

“As a matter of fact, [we’re] not necessarily waiting for the masterplan to be ready. Our first agreement covers the division of the land. From there, we should see how the development would unfold. In the division of land, you see a lot of development already going on,” Sy noted.

The joint development would accommodate an arena and a convention center to be constructed by SM Prime in a 3.5 hectare portion of the property, which would cost P3 billion to P4 billion.

The SM-ALI Group won the bid for the 26-hectare property—a portion of the 300-hectare South Road Properties—last June. The consortium consists of SM Prime, Ayala Land, and Ayala affiliate Cebu Holdings Inc.

It was the third parcel of land out of the 300-hectare South Road Properties that was awarded by the Cebu government. The other two were already bagged by SM Prime for SM Seaside Cebu and by Filinvest Land Inc. for its 50-hectare City Di Mare township.

Source: by KRISTYN NIKA M. LAZO / http://www.manilatimes.net/sm-ayala-to-complete-cebu-project-in-5-yrs/231825/