WHILE the owner and operator of SM malls has yet to come up with final arrangements regarding its plans for the South Road Properties (SRP), a company executive said his group has to have something concrete by 2008.
SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPHI) president Hans Sy said he does not want the company’s expansions in Cebu to be overtaken by that in Mindanao.
“I have to close a deal by 2008. We are on an expansion binge in Visayas and Mindanao. In Mindanao, we have already started,” he told Sun.Star Cebu in an interview yesterday.
He said that while SMPHI is “very serious” about expanding in Cebu, the company has not yet made any final arrangements regarding SRP.
“We have lots of issues to tackle, including the rates,” he told news reporters in a subsequent interview, also yesterday.Biggest mall
Sy said SMPHI plans to build another shopping center, similar in concept to the Mall of Asia but smaller. The Mall of Asia has a gross floor area of more than 38 hectares and is considered one of the biggest shopping malls in Asia.
Sy said SMPHI is also looking at possible sites for another mall in northern Metro Cebu and is eyeing properties between Mandaue City and Consolacion.
“We’re quite serious about expanding. We just hope that this would not be used to raise prices because we also have to look at economics (in our plans),” he said.
He said SMPHI is open to having a long-term lease or acquiring land at SRP.
“Both (arrangements) are okay. It all depends on the rates,” he said.
Despite the existence of SM City and the Northwing, an expansion wing to the existing mall, as well as Ayala Center Cebu, Sy said SMPHI foresees the need for more malls in the province.
He said he is “very positive” about further growth in Cebu’s economy, particularly with the boom in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.
In 2006, some 200,000 people found employment in the BPO sector, particularly in contact centers. The BPO sector is known to provide higher than minimum standardwages.
More OFWs
According to the National Economic and Development Authority in a report presented during the Sun.Star Economic Forum 2007, there are about 20 contact centers in Cebu.
Sy said the number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) is also expected to go up, another factor that will increase consumption.
While dollar remittances of OFWs have declined in value because of the appreciation of the peso, Sy said it cannot be denied that there are many Filipinos working or living overseas. “And the number (of OFWs) is growing,” he added.
“The market is very strong,” he said. “The (appreciation of the) peso is not helping but, looking at the totality (of the situation), it (rising peso) is good because even with the rising oil prices, the effects are not so big.”
Sy warned, though, that the BPO companies are vulnerable to the adverse effects of the peso’s appreciation as their clients are mostly based in the United States and are paid in dollars.
Article source: Sun.Star Cebu
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