SM Development Corporation’s board of directors has approved a rights offering of P5 billion worth of common shares to be offered to existing shareholders of the company.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Wednesday, SMDC said the rights issue is intended to raise funds for the firm to carry out its growth initiative thru landbanking and for other general corporate purposes.

The determination of the terms and conditions of the rights issue, including the final issue size, rights entitlement, offer price and record date has been delegated to the management by the SMDC board.

SMDC, the residential development arm of the SM group of companies, reported a record-breaking consolidated net income of P1.0 billion for the first half of 2009, coming from just P10.3 million in the same period last year.

This comes after its real estate income for the period expanded by 104 percent to P776 million