SM Prime Holdings Inc., the property-development arm of Filipino-Chinese billionaire Henry Sy’s SM group of companies, will continue to capitalize on the growth of the country’s business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry by building e-commerce (E-Com) centers in strategic locations in Metro Manila.
“Our commitment to contribute to the growth of our economy is firm, so much that we are investing heavily on infrastructure to cater to the demand of the BPO sector, which is currently on a winning streak,” SM Prime Senior Vice President David Rafael said in a recent media briefing held in the Mall of Asia (MOA) complex.
Rafael pointed out SM Prime remains to be bullish on the BPO sector because it has demonstrated sustained growth in the recent years. The BPO industry had a stellar performance, posting a 19-percent growth in revenues to $18.4 billion, boosted by the increasing demand for outsourced services from the health care, information management, gaming and animation and global in-house center segments. Further, the BPO sector employed a total of 1.03 million outsourced professionals in 2014.
This year the industry is expected to hit $21.3 billion in revenues, and employ 1.18 million agents.
“This is a clear sign that more and more players will be coming into the Philippines. These companies would require office spaces in prime and strategic locations such as the MOA complex,” Rafael said.
SM will develop a total of six E-Com centers in the 67-hectare MOA complex. Rafael said the area is a very suitable site for BPO, as well as shipping companies, because it is near major transport hubs such as the Light Rail Transit 1 and the Metro Rail Transit 3 lines.
Rafael said the 15-story, P3.3-billion Five E-Com center is being targeted to start commercial operations this month, which has a floor area of 125,716 sq m.
“One of the compelling reasons of the E-Com series is the office space. BPOs want to maximize the space area to achieve efficiency,” Rafael said. We are trying to create opportunities, meet the demand of the BPOs, and want to create lifestyles centering on mixed-use through townships. Thus, we create value for the company because mixed-use development provides more value proposition to the investor.
Other E-Coms being developed are the Three E-Com, which is scheduled to be completed in 2017, and Four E-Com’s groundbreaking in 2019. Meanwhile, Rafael said SM Prime will also be active in pushing the development of the SM Mall of Asia (MOA) complex into a township to enable people to give more convenience and flexibility to urban dwellers. “The township concept is very relevant now because of the worsening situation in Metro Manila. Living in a township minimizes stress from the daily travel in the city,” Rafael said.
The move is also seen as a move to be at par with property titans Zobel-led Ayala Land Inc. and Andrew Tan-led Megaworld Corp. in the development of townships.
Rafael said the MOA area has developed a niche in the entertainment segment, as many entertainment facilities such as the SM MOA Arena, SMX and MOA have been venues of several major recent events.