SM Group will invest 3 billion yuan ($451 million) to build the world's largest free-standing shopping mall in Tianjin Binhai New Area. [Photo/Agencies]

Philippine group to put $1 billion into building five shopping centers

TIANJIN - SM Group, the Philippines largest retailer, will invest more than $1 billion in the Chinese market to open one shopping mall a year for five years to cash in on growing consumer power in the emerging market.

"We will start one mall every year in the next five years, including the one in Tianjin this year, all of them in second- or third-tier cities," SM Group President Hans T. Sy told China Daily on Friday at the groundbreaking ceremony for its planned shopping mall in Tianjin.

The company will invest 3 billion yuan ($451 million) to establish the world's largest free-standing shopping mall in Tianjin Binhai New Area, the Philippine group's biggest investment in China.

The mall, to be completed by 2013, will have 530,000 square meters of floor space - larger than 64 international standard football fields - and is meant to serve as a one-stop destination in keeping with SM's philosophy of providing shopping, entertainment, food and leisure.

Within five years, SM Group plans to open new malls in second- and third-tier cities such as Suzhou, Chongqing, Zibo, and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

"Since Beijing and Shanghai have already been very competitive in the shopping-mall sector and these cities don't offer enough property for us to open large-scale shopping malls demonstrating our philosophy, we want to increase our presence in China by expanding in second-tier cities, " said Sy.

"Why be a fish in the sea, when you can be a shark in a pond," he added.

The company said it expects sales in China will equal 10 percent of its net sales in the Philippines by 2015, up from 5 percent this year.

SM Group, founded by the Philippine's wealthiest man, Henry Sy Sr, in 1958, has holdings in its core business shopping centers and other sectors including supermarkets, department stores, banking, real estate development, and tourism.

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It has 44 large-scale shopping centers in Asia and has set up shopping centers in Xiamen, Jinjiang, and Chengdu since it entered the Chinese market in 2000.

Other mall developers also see potential in the Chinese market.

Star Mall Group, a real estate and investment company in Turkey, announced a plan in August to open 10 shopping malls in China over the next 10 years.

Bulent Ulusoy, the chief executive officer of Star Mall Group, said the 10 projects are expected to involve a total investment of $2 billion and will include new shopping malls in Shanghai and Wuxi.