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SM Investments runs some of the Philippines' biggest shopping malls, supermarkets and banks, making money from shoppers, tenants, borrowers and depositors.
SM Investments is really three big businesses wearing one coat. It owns the country's largest shopping mall chain, a grocery and retail group, and a bank — plus a property arm that develops the land and buildings around those malls. If you live in the Philippines, you have almost certainly walked through one of its buildings, bought food from one of its stores, or used one of its banking services.
Start with the malls. SM Prime, the property arm, builds and runs huge shopping centers that anchor whole neighborhoods, then surrounds them with homes, offices, and hotels. Tenants pay rent and share a slice of their sales, and millions of shoppers coming through the doors every day make those malls the place to be for both local and international brands. The chain also runs supermarkets and department stores inside and outside the malls, so it captures the shopper at every turn — whether they are buying a refrigerator or just a bag of rice. Then there is the money side. BDO Unibank, the country's largest bank and part of the SM group, takes deposits and lends to consumers and businesses. SM also runs its own lending and financial services businesses, offering things like loans and credit to shoppers and small companies. So money moves in a full loop: people earn, they spend at the mall, and their savings and loans flow through the banking arm.
The company's roots go back to a single shoe store opened by Henry Sy in Manila in the 1950s. Today the group is one of the largest companies in the Philippines, and its sheer scale — thousands of tenants, a bank with trillions of pesos in assets, and a property pipeline — gives it a moat that is very hard to copy. Its main risk is simply that all of this depends on Filipinos having money to spend and confidence to borrow; when the economy slows, malls, retail, and banks all feel it at once.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Nov 2026