SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SM Prime) reported a net income of P5.45 billion last year, up 10 percent from 2005, the company said Wednesday. Its operating revenues grew 21 percent at P13.2 billion in the same comparable period.

Growth was driven by mall sales. SM Prime opened five new malls in 2006, increasing its gross floor area by 23 percent to 3.5 million square meters. Last inaugurations were SM City Sta. Rosa, SM City Clark, SM Supercenter Pasig, SM City Lipa and world class SM Mall of Asia—which accounts for about 11 percent of SM Prime’s total floor area. Average daily foot traffic also increased from 1.7 million in 2005 to 2.0 million in 2006.

Cinema ticket sales also increased by 22 percent to P1.6 billion, as blockbusters made their way into SM cinemas, led by Superman—the movie also featured select 3D scenes in SM Mall of Asia’s IMAX Theater.

SM Prime president Hans Sy said, “Our 2006 results reinforce SM Prime’s dominant and profitable position in the Philippine mall business. It’s a position we take with the highest degree of responsibility and commitment for continued growth and service innovation. We thank our customers for their enduring support for SM malls and our shareholders for their confidence in the management’s capability to deliver the company’s goals.”

For 2007 SM Prime plans to open four new malls and expand three of its existing malls, an expansion that would require a capital expenditure of P7 billion.

The company will inaugurate its first mall this year in the province of Negros Occidental in central Philippines early next month. Other inaugurations later this year are SM City Taytay and SM Supercenter Muntinlupa. A strip mall—the Sunset Strip—at the Esplanade along the Manila Bay and just across the Mall of Asia is also up for inauguration.

PHILIPPINE stocks rose for a second day. Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) gained after the company said it will spend more on expansion this year.

AYALA Land Inc. (ALI), the property development arm of the Ayala Group, said it will borrow 30 percent or roughly P4.9 billion of its P16.2 billion total capital expenditure this year.

SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SM Prime) reported a net income of P5.45 billion last year, up 10 percent from 2005, the company said Wednesday. Its operating revenues grew 21 percent at P13.2 billion in the same comparable period.

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a nearly $80-million verdict intended to punish the Philip Morris tobacco company for endangering the lives of smokers, and set limits on how jurors can decide to make big companies pay for wrongdoing.

Ayala Corp. grossed P395.375 million from the sale of 145,000 shares in Globe Telecom Inc. at P1,355 each on February 12, 2007 and another 145,000 at P1,375 each on February 13, 2007. The sale reduced AC’s holdings in its telecom unit to 45,042,252 shares, or 34.10 percent as of January 13, 2007 from 45,332,252 shares on September 1, 2006.