SM Prime Holdings eyes three more malls in Cebu

By Rhia de Pablo Updated July 06, 2009 12:00 AM

CEBU, Philippines - SM Prime Holdings Inc., the conglomerate that owns and manages SM shopping malls in the country is currently negotiating with three properties here in Cebu for possible sites of three new malls.

“We are still in the middle of negotiations but we will come out with some good news towards the end of the third quarter because we should be closing some deals by then,” said SM Prime Holdings president Hans T. Sy in an interview.

However, Sy stressed that they could not assure that these three properties will all be clinched but he hopes that they can get all three.

He also said that the three new properties will hopefully include the South Road Properties (SRP) site.

After SM Prime Holdings close the deals for the three new sites in Cebu this third quarter, they are targeting to construct the malls simultaneously within 18 to 30 months so that it will be ready for operation by 2011.

Sy said that there are certain formulas that they are looking for in acquiring a new site for their mall operations and traditionally, the size requirement is around four to five hectares because the size that is lower than that becomes a super center, a smaller version of existing SM malls.

The three sites that SM is negotiating with measures around 80,000 to 85,000 square meters with provisions to expand to 200, 000 square meters like SM City Cebu, said Sy.

“Cebu is ready for three new SM malls and we are looking at utilizing our new operation and expansion approach. We believe that there is enough market even during the crisis because people look at shopping malls now as substitute for public parks so we will continue to develop malls into a destination center where people can go and visit,” said Sy.

Just recently, SM acquired new sites in Davao and General Santos for new malls and nationwide, they are set to open a supercenter in Las Piñas this October and in Rosario, Cavite this November.

Currently, SM has 36 malls all over the country and abroad as three of which is in China.

Sy bared plans to put up a fourth SM mall in Suzhou, China and expand its existing Xiamen operations.

“China is our growth story for the next five years. We are up against big competitors in China so our strategy is to move in to second to third tier cities which are areas that have never heard of shopping centers,” said Sy.

Aside from their plans to open another SM mall in China, the company is also looking at opening four new malls in 2010 which will include Tarlac, Antipolo and Calamba.

“Right now our main focus is in the Philippines because we still see a lot of growth here although everybody knows SM already. We will continue to strengthen our organization and we constantly tell our people to focus on Cebu which is currently the best place to be in Visayas and Mindanao. We are bullish of Cebu and we definitely have to have a second SM site here,” said Sy.

Key industry players reach consensus in LIRA project

By Rhia de Pablo Updated July 16, 2009 12:00 AM

CEBU, Philippines – With the signing of a memorandum of agreement, local government unit representatives and selected key industry players in Cebu signified their support to the Philippine Retirement Authority’s (PRA) Local Integrated Retirement Area (LIRA) project.

The LIRA project was launched last June with the objective of bringing together business establishments and the government sector to a mutual covenant of supporting our local retirement industry and recently a memorandum of agreement has been signed in the Crown Regency to gather the support of various industry players.

In an interview with reporters, PRA chairman retired Gen. Edgar Aglipay said that the LIRA is one of their projects aimed at organizing tourist destinations all over the country to become integrated retirement areas.

He said that the MOA that was signed also integrates the housing sector to the medical sector and the entertainment industry so that foreign retirees will have “preferential treatment” and discounts in purchasing units, renting apartments and hotel rooms as well as in availing medical treatments and entertainment services.

“We want to provide our foreign retirees with preferential treatment and good privileges so we are organizing our big cities and tourist destinations so that they will be able to cater to the needs of these retirees in housing, medical services and entertainment,” said Aglipay.

He said that through their integrated program, they do not need to develop a single facility before they can aggressively promote the country’s retirement industry because it will utilize existing facilities offered by our key cities such as hotels, condominiums, hospitals, golf courses and amenities needed by foreign retirees.

Currently, the PRA has about 21, 000 retired enrolees in its special resident retirees visa (SRRV) program which provides foreigners the privilege of having a permanent and indefinite stay in the country.

Aglipay said that this year, they target to enrol 4,000 more retirees and 25 years from now they are positively looking at enlisting a million retirees by then.

“If each of these one million retirees would spend 1, 000 dollars a month, it would mean a billion dollars injected directly to our economy and this is much higher to the ones earned though our OFW remittances. Every retiree also provides average of four jobs so that would mean four million jobs for the country,” said Aglipay.

He said that there is a lot of potential in tapping retirees all over the world and even just around Asia, there is already a sufficient number because China has around 80 million retirees, Japan has 35 million, South Korea has eight million while Taiwan has around six million.

Meanwhile, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Consul Samuel L. Chioson who represented Cebu’s business sector stressed in his message that the task of promoting the Philippines as a retirement paradise is in line with their organization’s vision as the engine of growth towards global competitiveness.

“The launching of LIRA was a wake up call for the Chamber to also think about its member-companies and figure out what else can be done to enhance tourism in the retirement industry. It was a realization that the business sector should utilize the period of slowdown to build up resources and programs towards this end,” he said.

Chioson said that to date, PRA together with the Cebu Investment and Promotion Center (CIPC) and CCCI have gone through brainstorming sessions on program concepts by which the LIRA project can take off and so Cebu can become a home away from home not only for local tourists but for foreigners as well.

Local money transfer firm sees growth in remittances

By Rhia de Pablo Updated July 18, 2009 12:00 AM

CEBU, Philippines - Having the widest network of branches nationwide with over 1,200 locations and over 70 international partners overseas, M. Lhuillier Philippines continues to see growth in its business operations especially in its remittance segment.

In an interview with M. Lhuillier Philippines vice president Michael L. Lhuillier, he said that although the volume of their remittance has plateaud, growth is still evident and if both their domestic and international remittances were lumped together, it can be noted that the whole pie has been growing.

He said that on an average, overseas Filipino workers deployed from abroad send around $200 to $300 dollars while domestic money transfer is smaller in value but higher in frequency.

“Banks have higher principal and capable of servicing higher remittances but we are also capable of doing the same although we are preferred for smaller amounts with higher frequency for convenience of both sender and receiver,” said Lhuillier.

He said that their locations have helped them grow their Kwarta Padala transfer, which started in 1996, as they can now easily dispatch cash in a faster way to different parts of the country.

The service started from a vision to service students nationwide but it grew beyond expectations and now the domestic remittances segment has been having big take ups since then, said Lhuillier.

Right now, M. Lhuillier is looking at tapping the nine million OFW deployed abroad and they have started this plans by opening an office in Los Angeles which services the North America and Canada market, considering a big bulk of OFWs in these areas.

Lhuillier said that aside from the US market, they are looking at tapping big markets like Middle East, Europe and Asia where OFW populations are also big.

With the proliferation of electronic transfers offered by the telecommunications industry, M. Lhuillier is now facing challenges but they are keen on still getting ahead as pioneers of this particular service in the country.

“The telco industry is indeed getting space in the electronic money transfer although they provide a different kind of service. But just as they are innovating, we are also innovating and trying to increase further our locations to expand our reach both nationwide and abroad,” said Lhuillier.

He said that to further intensify their money transfer services in the market they are also currently establishing more 24 hours and seven days a week branches in the country’s key cities and right now they have this in Cebu, Manila and Davao.

Right now, they have already started diversifying their services through tapping the corporate market as well as various government and church organizations.

M. Lhuillier now services Philhealth collections, NSO birth certificate and marriage certificate transactions, GSIS pension deliveries, company tie ups for payroll, collection of tidings for churches and the recent Jollibee Padala service.

In terms of expansion, M. Lhuillier is looking at opening

1, 500 locations nationwide within two to three years and they are still trying to make a decision if they will venture into franchising because so far the 1, 200 locations are all company-owned and operated.

“We want to cover a wide scale of the Philippine archipelago so when opportunity presents itself we will open more locations so we can put one in every municipality. With more locations, we can have more reach. We are also looking at getting into other markets abroad so we can serve more Filipinos,” said Lhuillier.

He also bared plans of launching new services to enhance their business and one of the first that they have done so far is to put up an in-house call center that tends to the feedbacks, complaints, customer service inquiries on lending and other concerns of their client-base nationwide.

Ayala Center to open "Active Zone" by third quarter

Updated July 21, 2009 12:00 AM

CEBU, Philippines – After the opening of the multi-million expansion “The Terraces”, Ayala Center Cebu gears up to open its first “Active Zone, by the third quarter of this year.

ACC division head Joy Polloso said the mall will be converting the two-level Ayala Entertainment Center, into an Active Zone that can accommodate around 20 tenants selling sports-related gears, equipments, and ready-to-wear items.

The facility is currently undergoing construction and will be completed by the third quarter of this year.

In 2008, ACC posted 10 percent growth of its total revenue last year, contributing to a “still” dynamic retail market in the metropolis.

“The year ended on an even positive note with the grand opening of The Terraces. This brought additional 8,500 square meters of leasable area that offers many first in Cebu such as popular restaurants, coffee shops and a wellness zone,” said Cebu Holdings Inc. (CHI) president Francis O. Monera.

Monera said aside from the active Cebuano shoppers and diners that boosted the growth of the shopping and leisure/entertainment mall, he said the positioning of ACC as a tourist destination also attracted increasing number of domestic visitors from all over the country, especially from neighboring provinces, to experience the sophisticated shopping and entertainment environment.

Monera said the strong presence of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) here, which provided high-paying jobs, also sustained the good performance of the entire retail arm operation CHI last year, amid the fragile economic landscape.

He said the influx of IT and BPO workers in Cebu that have high disposable income have helped the entire retail industry cope with the projected weak retail demand which started last year.

“Ayala Center Cebu is positioned to be the lifestyle icon in Cebu. With this, our focus is not to compete with other malls but to further work on strengthening our position by refining our brand and introducing trailblazing concepts to the market,” Tongco added.

Meanwhile, because of the volatile economic landscape threat, CHI is holding off its specific schedule to start the development of South Surface Parking, the area fronting the Rustan’s Supermarket, now being utilized as car park.

The South Surface Parking is part of CHI’s super-block within the Cebu Business Park.

CHI will be allocating another budget for the South Surface Parking development plan, additional to the almost P1 billion budget spent in the Annex Building and The Terraces projects. — Ehda Dagooc

Construction company eyeing investments in Cebu

Updated July 21, 2009 12:00 AM

CEBU, Philippines - One of the leading and biggest construction companies in Asia is exploring the possibility of investing in Cebu Province.

Capitol consultant on information and revenue generation Rory Jon Sepulveda said the Gammon Construction Co. has expressed interest in the multi-billion projects like the Trans-axial road and seaports and airports in the province.

Gammon has been building a wide range of construction projects in Asia for nearly 50 years, their leading market is Hong Kong where they are also based.

Yesterday morning, an advance party from Gammon went to see Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.

In a press conference, Garcia said she showed them the overview of the provincial government such as the building of new generator at the terminal of Mactan-Cebu International Airport, the expansion of Cebu port and the proposed Trans-axial highway project.

When asked why Gammon chose Cebu province to invest, Garcia merely replied: “Maybe they know how to choose wisely. They are international players. They know how to distinguish between know-how to talk and having the track record to show.”

Garcia also confirmed that she will be attending the Philippine Investment Forum on September 22 at the Metropolitan Club in New York.

President Gloria Arroyo will also attend as the keynote speaker of the forum.

Garcia will be speaking and talking about Investment Destination: Cebu, Manufacturing and Service Sectors.

According to Garcia, the forum will showcase Cebu, the investment opportunities and huge potential that Cebu Province has, especially in the Tourism aspect. — Garry B. Lao/BRP (THE FREEMAN)