SM Prime opens Cherry outlet in Rizal province

SM PRIME Holdings, Inc., owned by the country’s richest man Henry S. Sy, is expanding its presence in the Rizal province with the re-opening of a Cherry Foodarama outlet on Friday.

The opening of SM Cherry Antipolo will bring its mall network in the country to 63, the integrated property developer said in a disclosure to the stock exchange on Thursday.

It is also the third Cherry Foodarama outlet that the company re-opened to public after acquiring the brand in 2015.

Situated along Marcos Highway, SM Cherry Antipolo spans 27,000 square meters (sq.m.) of gross floor area (GFA) bringing the total retail footprint to 9.1 million sq.m. in the Philippines.

“The opening of this mall provides the company a stronger foothold in the eastern part of Metro Manila along with our three other malls in Rizal province, the SM City Masinag, SM City Taytay and SM Center Angono,” SM Prime President Jeffrey C. Lim was quoted in the statement as saying.

About 55% of three-level shopping mall’s retail space has been awarded.

The SM group is bringing in SM Supermarket, Ace Hardware, Watsons, and BDO Unibank, Inc. — all part of the Sy family’s investment portfolio — to enhance the shopping experience in the community by offering expanded services beyond the traditional grocery experience.

SM Prime delivered an annual 13% growth in earnings to P6.60 billion in the first quarter of 2017 compared to P5.84 billion anchored on the expansion of its shopping mall business.

Shares in SM Prime lost 30 centavos or 0.89% to settle at P33.40 apiece on Thursday.