How We Operate
We Drive Growth
The Philippines remains one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and our Group benefits from this due to our consumer-centric businesses and our entrepreneurial culture. Our track record of growth speaks for itself.
While we are No.1 in all the key businesses we operate, we still see enormous opportunities for growth across the country. Levels of penetration are low and incomes are rising, especially in the provinces. Serving more customers in more regions with diverse tailored offerings and flexible formats is our core strategy for growth.
To expand SM Retail, we maintain a portfolio of diverse grocery formats by size and leading specialty stores in all key non-food categories, as well as our popular SM Store, our department store, that anchors our malls. This complete range allows us to adapt our retail presence and merchandise to each community and to ensure our malls always have high occupancy.
In 2025, our retail affiliates added 192 specialty stores and SM Markets opened 14 stores, with about 93% outside Metro Manila. Alfamart opened 280 neighborhood minimarts, nine in ten outside NCR, bringing grocery essentials closer to where people live.
In property, SM Prime opened new malls in Laoag and La Union, supporting regional development and job creation. We also launched our premium primary residential brand, Signature Series by SM Residences. Meanwhile, our Pasay reclamation project continued apace, completing sand placement last year and will deliver 360 hectares of modern city development anchored on sustainable lifestyles and much needed urban infrastructure.
Financial access also expanded as BDO and Chinabank added a combined 109 branches between them, mostly in underserved areas. Both our banks continued to invest in “phygital” capabilities, integrating physical branches with digital platforms to give consumers more choices and flexibility in how they bank.
Across our businesses, we also offer digital and e-commerce access via SMAC&SHOP and SM Markets Online in retail and SM Malls Online in malls.
Our one-stop logistics solutions provider, 2GO, launched a new Manila–Siargao route and expanded cold chain capacity by nearly 50%, strengthening connectivity and logistics for island communities.
Our continued growth as a group is enabled by long-term planning and a deep understanding of the Philippine market, underpinned by a strong balance sheet and high internal funding of expansion from our cash-generating businesses.
Alfamart: Expanding modern grocery shopping
Alfamart Philippines, our partnership with Alfamart Indonesia, is rapidly expanding, bringing convenient grocery shopping to new neighborhoods across Luzon.
Alfamart blends the convenience of a neighborhood store with the breadth of a supermarket — a format gaining strong traction across Southeast Asia, particularly among families that value accessibility and affordability.
It offers an assortment of products catering to daily needs including fresh and frozen food, SM Bonus products, snacks and personal care items at reasonable prices. Supported by its own distribution centers in Laguna, Quezon, Cavite, Bulacan and Pampanga, the chain ensures a consistent supply of tailored merchandise across its network of 2,309 stores.
The minimart format expands by at least 200 stores a year, creating new footprints for SM Retail in underserved areas with high growth potential.
BDO Network Bank: Bringing banking to the underserved
BDO Network branches are friendly, accessible and designed to cater to provincial communities. It offers reasonably priced credit and a broad banking relationship that covers savings, insurance, investments and cash management solutions.
In 2025, it opened 68 new branches, bringing the total number of branches and loan offices to 637. In remote areas with limited or no connectivity, the bank reaches customers through the deployment of low-orbit satellite internet.
These efforts are complemented by the coordinated expansion of Cash Agad, a service that allows individuals and MSMEs to withdraw cash, check their savings account balances, pay bills and make deposits using over 12,000 small retail point-of-sale (POS) terminals operated by partner agents.
We Leverage Our SM Ecosystem
We have always been deliberate in ensuring our businesses work together as an ecosystem that serves our customers. Our various Group businesses have grown together for nearly seven decades, interwoven to support each other at every stage.
These relationships are arms-length financially and subject to independent review and governance. However, at the operational level, the ability to work together as we grow is a unique feature and competitive advantage of the SM Group.
Visitors to our Mall of Asia complex in Pasay recognize our dynamic ecosystem in action. Anchored on one of the world’s largest and busiest malls with over 680 tenants and facilities that include commercial, social, dining, sports, entertainment, medical and other services, the 67-hectare complex also includes residential condominiums, office spaces, a world-class arena, hotels, a convention center and a National University campus. Our own retail, bank and logistics operations support its local businesses and customers.
The overall development supports hundreds of businesses and serves millions of customers as an Integrated Property Development. It is our blueprint for similar developments nationwide.
As of end 2025, we have 22 Integrated Property Developments across the country, with 11 in Metro Manila and 11 in key provincial cities. Each one is thoughtfully planned to bring together living, working, learning and leisure in one connected space.
As we grow, our banks also support the financial needs of our suppliers and tenants, enabling them to work seamlessly with our retail and property businesses.
With our growth trajectory into more provinces, the efficient movement of goods is critical. 2GO addresses this need with reliable premier end-to-end multimodal logistics and transportation solutions. Its shipping operations launched the Manila to Siargao route this year, opening direct freight access and providing sea travel alternative to one of the Philippines’ top island destinations.
Beyond being modern community hubs, our malls also serve as a marketplace for entrepreneurship. We have a long-term tenant occupancy rate of 96%, composed mostly of MSMEs.
Our loyalty program, SMAC, which has 11.5 million active members, helps tie together customer relationships across our businesses. In 2025, it collaborated with SM Store and BDO Remit to make remittance pick-ups more rewarding for Filipino families. When they claim their BDO remittances at SM Store Foreign Currency Exchange counters, they earn SMAC points, which they can use to shop and enjoy benefits across thousands of SM retail outlets nationwide.
SM continues to grow because its businesses are built to complement each other, creating and leveraging unique synergies, ultimately enabling us to serve our customers and communities better.
Our SM Ecosystem is a source of financial strength
Our mix of businesses makes us financially strong. They work well together by design.
Retail generates strong cash from its many stores across the country, and this cash flow stays reliable under any economic conditions.
Our banks deliver regular profits and large cash reserves, helping convince lenders we are safe and supporting our ability to borrow at attractive rates outside the Group.
Property collects steady rents from its network of malls and uses the cash generated to build large-scale projects that grow in value over time.
Portfolio businesses like 2GO, PGPC and NEO add earnings diversity, bringing additional reliable income to SM Investments, the parent, from logistics, renewable energy and high-quality office buildings.
Our stakes in these businesses give us diverse earnings, ample cash, controlled debt and stability, allowing us to confidently invest in growth.
Our SM Ecosystem enables MSMEs
SM is home to more than 100,000 MSMEs and we are invested in their growth and success. Our program “SM for MSMEs” under SM Supermalls champions the progress of these small businesses by providing a route-to-market, access to financing, business advice and support.
In 2025, SM for MSMEs conducted 28,761 booth activations as well as trade fairs and bazaars, empowering 920 new MSMEs and start-ups across the country. The program recorded a 64% increase in rental revenue versus 2024 with a 58% growth in booth activations, reflecting both broader reach and stronger execution across regional and provincial malls.
Successful businesses that started and grew with SM support include well-known brands such as National Bookstore, KangKong King flavored chips and Toby’s Sports.
SM Retail supports 299 local businesses and communities of artisans through our Kultura retail format dedicated to homegrown products.
We Take Responsibility Seriously
We are committed to being a responsible company with world-class standards. The scale of our operations and complexity of our business ecosystem require us to have strong governance principles and policies and to anchor how we operate on the values of integrity, accountability, transparency and fairness.
The tone is set at the Board level. Five out of nine of the company’s Board members are Independent Directors, making SM Investments a standout example of an independently-led major Asian conglomerate. Our Chairman, Amando M. Tetangco Jr., is a former two-term Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the first independent Chairman of the company.
These Independent Directors lead all of the company’s Investments’ key Board Committees. The Related Party Transaction Committee is comprised solely of Independent Directors. Board oversight covers financial integrity, risk management, internal controls and sustainability performance, among others.
This approach is cascaded via clear policies and processes into the operations of the Group, with the aim of adhering to best practices globally and applying them in our Philippine context.
Examples can be seen in our fair and equal employee practices, customer and employee health and safety standards, building construction standards, data privacy, business continuity policy and anti-harassment policy, among others. In many areas, such as climate resilience and disaster preparedness and in early adoption of international reporting standards such as GRI and IFRS, we are recognized as leaders among our peers.
In 2025, SM Retail was honored with the Privacy Management Program award because of its in-depth data privacy standards spanning across all its businesses. In banking, both BDO and Chinabank strengthened their whistleblowing and anti-bribery and corruption policies for transparent and successful business operations.
As one of the leading property developers in the country, SM Prime implements a healthy and equal selection of vendors through its supplier selection policy which implements a competitive and non-discriminatory process for all interested parties.
Third-party recognition such as our second consecutive 5 Golden Arrow Award by the ICD and the Top 50 ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard reflect how our governance practices translate into our daily operations.
As we grow, stewardship of trust is as important to us as stewardship of capital.
Increasing the role of women in our Board
Over the last 20 years, SM Investments’ commitment to be responsible has led to looking for best practices globally and aiming to lead in adopting them locally.
Since 2024, one-third of the company’s Directors have been women, well ahead of local regulatory expectations. This also follows the high percentage of women in management at 63% and in the general workforce at 64%.
In 2025, shareholders elected Marife B. Zamora as an Independent Director of the Board, joining Atty. Lilly K. Gruba as the second female Independent Director. Ms. Zamora brings decades of leadership in telecommunications, insurance and business process outsourcing and is also a known advocate for women in technology and leadership. Meanwhile, Atty. Gruba is a Professor on Taxation Law, Mergers and Acquisitions and Local Government Finance, as well as a former Director of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, and was Undersecretary of the Department of Finance.
We Protect the Environment
At SM, we place sustainability at the core of our operations. We are well-known as leaders in sustainability reporting and transparency, having for many years adopted international standards ahead of local requirements. The real thrust of our efforts, though, is in driving practical initiatives that have real impact. We also try to be advocates, supporting others to do likewise.
In 2025, we identified initiatives across our businesses that aim to reduce our carbon footprint by up to 40% by 2040 through efficient practices and the adoption of renewable energy wherever possible. We also partnered with the Department of Science and Technology to help advance the development of sustainable plastic materials and improve plastic waste management strategies.
SM Supermalls unveiled the largest rooftop solar energy photovoltaic (PV) system on a commercial building in the country at SM City Fairview with a 3.79 MW peak solar power capacity. To date, 68 out of our 89 malls are already equipped with solar panels. This brings our property arm closer to its goal of net zero GHG emissions by 2040.
Our new malls in La Union and Laoag, Ilocos Norte are both equipped with rainwater catchment facilities that can store 760 and 1,068 cubic meters of rainwater, respectively. These underground tanks collect and store rainwater to help mitigate flooding in surrounding communities during adverse weather conditions.
Our residential business launched SMDC Nature, a new sustainability-focused residential brand advocating green living, wellness and accessibility, offering nature-centric homes. These residential units will be equipped with solar power systems and motion-sensor lighting, reducing power use by up to 35% in common areas, preventing over 250 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually per project.
In SM Retail, we continue to champion sustainable consumption anchored on our Green Finds program. This program offers customers a wide range of sustainable choices from over 29,000 green products as of the end of 2025.
To date, BDO has disbursed over PHP1.21 trillion in sustainable finance that include funding 71 high-impact renewable energy projects capable of generating 6,165 MW of clean energy nationwide. BDO does not finance any new coal-fired power plant capacity and is on track to reducing its coal exposure by 50% and no more than 2% of its total loan portfolio by 2033, while further increasing its financing support for renewable energy projects under its Sustainable Finance Program. Chinabank has adopted a phased approach to reduce its exposure to coal-fired power generation projects to not more than 5% of total loan portfolio by 2030 and not more than 3% by 2035.
The continued exploration of geothermal sites by our renewable energy (RE) company, PGPC, is crucial in our effort to contribute to the national goal of having RE account for 35% of the country’s total power capacity by 2030 and derive more than 50% of the country’s total power generation capacity from RE sources by 2040.
Our partnership with Japanese waste recycling technology company GUUN helped process non-recyclable waste and hard-to-recover plastics into fluff fuel to reduce coal usage. The collaboration helps us support the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Act of 2022, which requires companies to recover their plastic packaging products and to pursue waste responsible management programs.
Our efforts in environmental sustainability are must-haves that are integrated into our daily operations with a clear measurable impact.
A mission towards plastic-free communities
The SM Group addresses the challenge to help advance the development of sustainable plastic materials and improve plastic waste management strategies.
Our Trash to Cash program under SM Cares is a recycling market that encourages the public to exchange plastic waste, PET bottles and other recyclables for cash every first Friday and Saturday of the month in participating SM malls nationwide.
We take responsibility for the recovery of our plastic packaging products. One of our affiliates, Watsons Philippines, has already transitioned 100% of its stores to using paper bags instead of single-use plastics. In addition, 2GO’s shipping operations now utilize 100% recyclable, reusable and biodegradable packaging materials. For Airspeed, the company reduces plastic waste across its fulfillment operations by replacing 75% of its bubble sheet consumption with eco-friendly shredded carton packaging. In addition, its delivery pouches are now 100% biodegradable.
In 2025, SM Markets sold 20.8 million Green Bags, equivalent to around 31.2 million plastic bags avoided.
We’re also taking on the challenge of plastics and turning it into practical solutions. Our partnership with GUUN reduces landfill volume and gives trash a second lease on life by converting over 6,000 metric tons of non-recyclable waste into fluff fuel, avoiding the annual landfill burden for 8,000 households.
As we convert waste into clean energy solutions, we are creating a circular model within our Group.
Reducing our carbon footprint
At SM, we help drive cleaner and more efficient energy across the Group. Aside from our leading efforts in financing and investing in renewable energy through BDO and PGPC, all our businesses are working on practical initiatives.
To date, SM Prime sources at least 60% of its electricity utilization from clean, renewable energy.
SM Retail is also advancing clean energy adoption, with The SM Store in Cubao now sourcing 3.3% of its power from rooftop solar, while the SM Retail Headquarters in Pasay City has been running 100% on renewable energy since November 2024.
Atlas Mining recently commissioned the country’s first megawatt-scale floating solar facility at the Carmen Copper site in Toledo City, Cebu; covering three hectares on the Malubog Reservoir, the installation generates 4.99 MW of renewable power, meeting about 10% of the copper mine’s energy needs.
Our logistics arm 2GO has shifted to renewable energy for its warehouses in Asinan and Elisco, deploying a combined 48 electric vehicle (EV) forklifts that cut approximately 40.5 metric tons of carbon emissions annually.
For Goldilocks Bakeshop, two of its manufacturing plants in Pangasinan and Cebu have opted to use solar energy in 2025; with a total peak capacity of 1,006 kW, it can potentially save 1.06 million kWh of electricity, equivalent to a 716.48 metric ton reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
NEO successfully renewed its EDGE Zero Carbon Certification, reaffirming its commitment to achieving net zero carbon across all seven buildings, well ahead of the company’s original goal of 2030.
We Create Shared Value and High Impact
Our financial performance is consistently strong but we also measure success in terms of the impact we have on our many stakeholders. We aim to make a positive impact in people’s lives.
Serving our customers is paramount. They give us our reason for being. We are proud that the SM brand is recognized and trusted by millions of Filipinos for helping meet their needs.
In 2025, we continued to focus on elevating the customer experience by transforming our spaces to become more experiential, fostering community well-being. The MOA Sky Park, SM La Union sandbox, SM Laoag’s Dap-ayan Park and new pickleball facilities in our malls are prime examples. Inside our retail stores, you will now find real coffee shops, through our partnership with Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, which makes the shopping experience even more enjoyable.
We rely on our empowered and customer-focused employees to serve our customers. We ensure that all 141,000 of us are as diverse as the people we serve and all treated equally and fairly.
SM has been recognized as one of the country’s largest job creators, strengthened through the launching of our Job Opportunities Building Skills (J.O.B.S.) advocacy, which hosted 370 nationwide job fairs and upskilling initiatives in our various malls. Over 30,000 Filipinos were hired on the spot as we continue to partner with government agencies and with various organizations for a globally competitive workforce.
We also help entrepreneurs whether as a supplier or tenant. Majority of SM Supermalls tenants are MSMEs. These up-and-coming business owners actively join our fairs and leasing spaces, many of whom are first-time entrepreneurs or former online sellers who now see the value of connecting with customers face-to-face. Through these, SM becomes the launchpad and marketplace of their dreams.
SM Foundation and SM Cares continue to serve as the bedrock for engaging with our host communities. In addition to 1,797 medical missions and over 7,376 scholarships, to date, we have renovated 228 health centers and breastfeeding facilities and built 116 schools. Our disaster relief programs have helped Filipinos with over one million packs of Kalinga (care) relief goods.
For our shareholders, we deliver consistent financial growth and increasing dividends. In 2025, we launched our first share buyback program, the largest in the Philippines at PHP60 billion (~USD1 billion), to drive additional value creation for our long-term investors.
Our impact is enormous.
Our contributions are measurable.
Our approach means that everyone benefits.
In this way, the Group becomes stronger and more successful in the long term.
Looking after our people
We focus on being an equal opportunity and fair employer. Our policies and employee programs are designed to ensure this and look after and develop our people. We ensure the health, safety and welfare of our people through policies and programs that promote a safe and healthy work environment.
Our people participate in a number of sports and fitness programs such as basketball, badminton, yoga and zumba. We also conduct learning sessions on health-related matters through online courses, such as mental health seminars and for raising awareness on the prevention of illnesses.
Our Equal Opportunity Policy and Zero Tolerance Policy on Harassment and Discrimination help ensure a responsible, safe and empowering work environment. Our Business Continuity Plan ensures the safety of our people by practicing disaster preparedness.
The SM Sustainability School, a group-wide learning platform aimed at developing sustainability skills and mindset, achieved nearly 100,000 enrollees by end 2025. Every employee participating can become a certified sustainability champion for free.
Through our people-focused efforts, we earned a certification as a Great Place to Work for 2025 by the global authority on workplace culture, Great Place to Work®.
