Market players maintained their optimism on the listed property development unit of the Sy group after the easing of quarantine restrictions for the past months.
The easing of most quarantine restrictions in recent months resulted in greater confidence among business owners, which prompted market investors to take a look at SM Prime last week, analysts said. Wendy B. Estacio, senior equity analyst at Philippine National Bank, said investors might have been “cautiously optimistic” and were pricing in a further improvement in SM Prime’s top line in the first quarter of 2022 “given the ease in quarantine restrictions in the past months.”
In its annual stockholders meeting last Monday, SM Prime said it was earmarking P80 billion for capital expenditure this year, the same amount it allotted in 2021. It also eyes to open its FourE-Com Center at the Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City and SMX Clark in Pampanga. For the long term, he said they would look into SM Prime’s completion and the take up of properties and projects outside the National Capital Region.