Iguatemi invests more in the interior of São Paulo
Valor Econômico - 07/17/2008
The Iguatemi Shopping Mall Company has an eye on the public of the interior of São Paulo. Two months after announcing that it will build a shopping center in Ribeirão Preto, the company confirmed yesterday to Valor that it will also build one in Jundiaí and will enlarge the Campinas', São Carlos', and Sorocaba's malls. "We are focusing our growth where we are already known. These cities aren't merely agricultural anymore, they are industrialized. Toyota, for instance, will have the second plant built in Sorocaba ", says Carlos Jereissati Filho, president of Iguatemi, a company with participation in 15 shopping malls in the country. Iguatemi will invest, together with Oliva PS, of the F A Oliva group, R$ 112 million (US$ 70 million) for the construction of a shopping mall with 213 stores in Jundiaí. The per capita GDP of the city is R$ 29.6 thousand (US$ 18.5 thousand) - value above the State of São Paulo's per capita GDP, which is R$ 18 thousand (US$ 11.25 thousand) (data from 2005). It is expected that the undertaking generates net operating profits of R$ 19.2 million (US$ 12 million) in the first year of activity. Besides the shopping mall, the project considers the construction of commercial and residential buildings. The Ribeirão Preto Shopping Mall will demand investments of R$ 123 million (US$ 76.9 million). The goal is to generate net operating profits of R$ 14.8 million (US$ 9.25 million) in the first year. Similarly to Jundiaí's project, Iguatemi will also build an enterprise with residential and commercial towers next to the mall. Iguatemi entered into and agreement with Petros, the pension fund of the employees of Petrobras, in order to increase their participation in the office towers next to the Market Place, in São Paulo. The acquisitions budget amounts to R$ 460 million (US$ 287.5 million) this year, R$ 260 million (US$ 162.5 million) of which was used for the purchase of the totality of the Market Place's shopping mall and towers. The other R$ 200 million (US$ 125 million) are being directed to Iguatemi JK, Alphaville, and Brasilia. "The resources for the works will come from the company's own cash and from lines of the BNDES (National Development Bank), since we have good leverage capacity", said Jereissati Filho. In the first quarter, Iguatemi registered net profits of R$ 15.1 million (US$ 9.45 million), after reversing losses of R$ 7.4 million (US$ 3.83 million) in the same period of 2007.