CapitaLand to open 8 shopping malls in 2017

Combined gross floor area is close to 1m sqm.

CapitaLand Mall Asia, CapitaLand's wholly owned shopping mall business, announced plans of building eight shopping malls next year with a combined retail gross floor area (GFA) of close to 1m sqm.

The group said this will be its largest retail GFA offering in a single year.

Of the eight malls, six are retail components of integrated developments in China, and one each in Malaysia and India. These include Raffles City Changning, CapitaLand’s second Raffles City project in Shanghai; LuOne, also in Shanghai; Raffles City Shenzhen; Raffles City Hangzhou; Suzhou Center Mall; and CapitaMall Westgate in Wuhan. The other two are Melawati Mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Forum Mall in Mysore, India.

CapitaLand Mall Asia CEO Jason Leow said the group is looking forward to open the said malls, stressing CapitaLand's strength in connecting retailers to ready catchments of shoppers.

"With these new malls opening in phases from the second quarter of 2017, it will position us well to deliver sustainable returns in the near future as they turn fully operational. At the same time, we will continue to enhance our retail scale and network through acquisitions and management contracts; as well as reconstitute our portfolio to achieve optimal asset mix to provide us with stability and a strong recurring income stream," Leow stated.

He explained that around 76% of CapitaLand’s total assets contribute to recurring income, of which shopping malls and integrated developments form the bulk. Currently, the group owns 103 malls in Singapore, China, Malaysia, Japan, and India.