SMIC acquires 5 BPO bldgs in BGC

MANILA, Philippines - Mall and banking conglomerate SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) has completed the purchase of five business process outsourcing (BPO) buildings in sprawling Bonifacio Global City (BGC).

The transaction marked the largest office space acquisition so far, the company said in a disclosure.

“SMIC (yesterday) completed its acquisition of the entire equity interests of CPI Asia Ten B.V. in 10 corporations,” the company said.

“The final purchase price shall be fixed pursuant to a pricing process agreed upon between the parties,” SMIC said.

The acquired companies own five BPO buildings with a combined 145,000 square meters (sqm.) of gross leasing area (GLA): the Net One Center, Net Square, Net Cube, Net Quad and Net Plaza.

Apollo Global Real Estate of American billionaire Leon Black was earlier reported to be selling its controlling share in the five buildings.

For its part, SMIC has 257,000 sqm. of gross floor area through One E-com and Two E-com Centers in the 67-hectare Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City. The company is beefing up its office space portfolio through the 125,000-sqm. Three E-Com Center.

In April, SMIC firmed up its decision to put up the P1-billion, 15-storey SM Cyber West Avenue in Quezon City. It signed a contract for Emerson Electric (Asia) Ltd.–ROHQ, a unit of US-based Fortune 500 company Emerson, to lease more than 12,000 sqm. of the 22,700-sqm. building.

Aside from office buildings, SMIC is into five core businesses: retail (SM Retail Inc.), malls (SM Prime Holdings Inc.), banking (BDO Unibank Inc. and China Banking Corp.), property (SM Development Corp.) and hospitality (SM Hotels and Conventions Corp.).