SM Prime Holdings Inc. was awarded a deal to reclaim and develop land in the central Philippine province of Cebu in a project valued at P138 billion ($3.1 billion).
The 1,500-hectare (3,707-acre) redevelopment may be completed in eight years, SM Prime Executive Vice President Jeffrey C. Lim said in a mobile-phone message on Friday. Adelino B. Sitoy, mayor of the town of Cordova, confirmed the venture with SM Prime, subject to the approval of President Aquino.
“This will be the biggest reclamation in the country,” Sitoy said in a phone interview. Cebu province, including Cordova, will have 51 percent of the reclaimed area, where a cruise-ship terminal, a university, a hospital and mixed-use developments are planned, the mayor said.
SM Prime, owned by the nation’s richest tycoon Henry Sy Sr., is also waiting for the national government approval on two reclamation proposals in the neighboring cities of Parañaque and Pasay in Metro Manila worth a combined P100 billion. The Cebu Provincial Reclamation Authority will endorse the project to the main agency in Manila next week, Sitoy said.
“SM is replicating the success of the Mall of Asia reclamation project in Manila,” said Anton Alfonso, an analyst at RCBC Securities Inc. in the Philippine capital. “This project will cement and expand SM’s footprint in a province that is considered as the economic center in that part of the country.”
Mall of Asia, one of the biggest shopping centers in the Philippines, owned by SM Prime, is on reclaimed land along Manila Bay.
SM Prime rose 1.5 percent to P19.86 at the midday trading break in Manila. Shares of SM Investments Corp., parent of SM Prime, gained 1.1 percent to P910.
The reclamation will triple Cordova’s current 800 hectares of land, while reducing its 3,500-hectare fishing area by more than a third, Sitoy said. It’s also an effort to clean up the town’s image, after revelations it had become a center for online child pornography.
“This will be our redeeming feature,” Sitoy said, adding that local authorities are cleaning up the town and no new cases of child exploitation had surfaced recently. “We will make Cordova the most beautiful city in the country.”
Bloomberg News
1 comment
cant wait when the businesses and offices starts sprouting in the area.. i will definitely return to the phillippines to work near my home