SM Prime to open one mall every year in mainland China.

Byline: Kristine Jane R. Liu and Carmelito Q. Francisco

The country's largest mall developer will be employing roughly the same strategy adopt-ed for Philippine malls in running and expanding three malls in China.

"The direction of the China malls is similar to SM Prime Holdings, Inc. before it went public. We did not go into an expansion binge [until] we know that the organization and the brand are already there," SM Prime Holdings, Inc. President Hans T. Sy said in a news conference following the company's annual stockholders' meeting yesterday.

The plan is to open one mall in China a year.

SM has three malls in China - in Xiamen, Jinjiang, and Chengdu - and plans to open three more by 2012.

The new malls will be located in Suzhou, Chongquing and Zibo, all of which will have a …