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IN BRIEF

SM Prime heads for China

Fresh from opening the 4.3 million-square-foot Mall of Asia, in Manila, the Philippines, in May, SM Prime Holdings is casting its eyes to China for further development opportunities. “SM Prime right now is seriously considering looking into investing and going into China,” said Hans Sy, the company’s president, at a news conference. “Nothing is final yet, but very soon we should be able to finalize things.” In the meantime the Philippines’ largest retail developer has plenty to keep it busy at home, with 18 new malls opening between now and 2009 and several others undergoing expansion. The $125 million Mall of Asia, which occupies 148 acres overlooking Manila Bay, is the largest mall in the Philippines and one of the biggest in Asia.

CapitaLand launches China fund

CapitaLand Group, one of Southeast Asia’s biggest developers, launched two China retail funds worth a total of more than $1 billion and says it plans to launch a China retail REIT by year-end. The $600 million CapitaRetail China Development Fund will invest in mall development, and the $427 million CapitaRetail China Incubator Fund will buy existing retail properties with a view to repositioning and making them more productive, the firm says.

The retail REIT, which will be registered in Singapore by the end of the year, is expected to own seven properties valued at a combined $503 million. It will also have the first option to buy properties from the two new funds. CapitaLand’s mall-based property trust, CapitaMall, will be offered up to 20 percent of the new REIT’s shares in the prelisting stage. “With this successful closing of the two funds … the group now has a comprehensive and robust integrated China retail mall strategy,” said Liew Mun Leong, president and CEO of Singapore-based CapitaLand.

In particular, China Development Fund will invest in several planned Wal-Mart-anchored malls that it is developing in partnership with Shenzhen International Trust & Investment Co. (SZITIC), which is owned by the Chinese government. The fund is already building 21 malls with SZITIC, amounting to some 10.7 million square feet (990,000 square meters), as well as Wal-Mart’s Asian headquarters, in Shenzhen, and is considering building an additional 14 malls. In all, the company expects to have a portfolio of Wal-Mart-anchored centers amounting to 43 million square feet by 2010.

CapitaLand owns property in about 70 cities and 18 countries, including retail, offices and apartments. Singapore’s state investment firm, Temasek Holdings, has a 46 percent stake in the company.

In April CapitaLand said it was taking a stake in a property fund sponsored by Pantaloon Retail, India’s biggest retailer by sales. The two are also setting up a retail management company to operate 50 malls across India.

Asia has world’s top shoppers

Asia has some of the most avid shoppers in the world, according to a survey by AC Nielsen, an international consumer research firm. Of the 10 countries in which people shop at least once a week, seven are in Asia, Nielsen said. Residents of Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand rank highest in the world; they shop twice a week for entertainment, the survey found. Malls are an escape for people living in the cramped apartments of Asia’s crowded cities, theorizes Frank Martell, AC Nielsen Europe CEO and president. “The upside of this lifestyle for retailers,” said Martell, “is that with the money these consumers save on living at home, there’s simply more to spend at the shopping mall.” The Japanese rate as the world’s most enthusiastic grocery shoppers, with 58 percent saying they “really enjoy” it. Forty-two percent of Filipinos also find grocery shopping enjoyable. Not a single respondent from these countries said they “disliked” grocery shopping, AC Nielsen said. “Shopping has become a national pastime in many Asian countries and is so entrenched in lifestyles in Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore that governments have wisely turned this national characteristic into a major tourism attraction,” Martell said. The survey of 23,500 consumers in 42 markets across the globe was completed in November 2005.

Singapore slacks up on shopping

Major changes are afoot with Singapore’s retail scene. First, the government may approve late-night shopping. Currently, stores are not allowed to stay open past 9:30 p.m., except during the eight-week annual Great Singapore Sale, when they can do business past midnight. The move has at least one powerful proponent in Vivian Balakrishnan, who is second trade and industry minister.

“Increasing the shopping hours into late-night shopping makes it possible to reach out to people who would otherwise be too busy,” she said. Retail will also receive a boost from a $25 million plan to upgrade pedestrian areas on Orchard Road, the city-state’s main shopping area.