Economy

Philippine property developer eyeing Chinese market

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-20 13:52

MANILA - Philippine property developer SM Development Corp (SMDC) is looking at expanding its projects to China, following mostly the footsteps of its sister firm SM Prime Holdings, Inc.

Henry Sy Jr, son of Philippines' richest man, said that the strong profits of SMDC encouraged the firm to look at other places both domestically and in China. Currently, only SM Prime, Philippines' largest mall operator, has presence in the populous country.

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"We are highly encouraged by the sustained warm market acceptance of SMDC's projects. Our residential condominiums are enjoying brisk sales while construction are ongoing. We are exerting stronger efforts to allow this trend to continue and prosper thus we are also looking to expand in areas outside Metro Manila and even outside the Philippines such as in China," Sy said.

SMDC reported a growth of 48 percent to 2 billion pesos ($46.29 million) in its profits from January to September. Revenues from real estate operations meanwhile jumped by 63 percent to 6.1 billion pesos.

The firm said it has pre-sold 8,040 residential units worth 16.9 billion pesos or more than doubled what the company was able to sell during the same period last year.

SMDC and SM Prime are owned by Philippines' richest man Henry Sy Sr who is also engaged in banking, retail operations and leisure development.