Aeon Co, the Japanese firm developing the soon-to-be-opened Aeon Mall on Phnom Penh’s Sothearos Boulevard, has reported a record $62.3 billion in revenue for its financial year ending February 28.

The company, which has more than 260 subsidiaries, including the shopping centre development arm Aeon Mall Co, announced its annual financial results to the Tokyo Stock Exchange last Friday citing an ongoing effort to penetrate ASEAN markets.

“The highest annual operating revenue in Aeon’s history,” the financial statement boasts.

The firm’s interests in the region include the Aeon Mall Phnom Penh, which is slated to open June 30. The company’s first Vietnam shopping centre, which opened in January, and a licence to provide consumer credit card products in Myanmar obtained in July last year were also noted as ASEAN milestones in the April 25 statement.

“Aeon strove to expand its business by executing a common group strategy prioritizing Asian markets, urban markets, senior-oriented markets, and digital markets in order to capture business opportunities in new growth areas,” the report reads.

Aeon’s shopping centre development business, which now oversees operations at 138 separate malls through Japan, China and Vietnam, saw an 8.1 per cent year-on-year increase in operating revenue to $2.1 billion.

Meanwhile, in Cambodia, Japanese technology giant Sharp secured a deal with Aeon Mall Phnom Penh to provide a solar power generation system, according to a company statement published on Monday.

The system will include two separate solar power generators, including one see-through panel said to sit above an open-air café, which will be located in the centre of the 108,000-square-metre mall space.

The see-through panel, which is capable of generating 27.5 kilowatts of power, will reportedly be the first time the technology has been installed away from Japan, the statement said.

A second solar-power generation system, capable of generating 198 kilowatts of power, will also be installed on the east side of the new mall, in the bicycle parking zone.

The Sharp system will power the mall’s entire lighting and air-conditioning system, according to the electronics provider.

Aeon Mall officials cemented the new Sothearos Boulevard shopping centre’s opening date of June 30 earlier this week.

The Aeon Mall and Sharp deal, of which the value remains unknown, is not the only Japanese firm to benefit from the new development.

In January, Hitachi-Sunway Information Systems, a joint Japanese- and Malaysian-owned technology and IT assistance firm, signed an agreement with Aeon to provide point-of-sales terminals and technical assistance to the 190 retail tenants said to fill the new shopping centre.

Some 49 new Japanese tenants are to open up at Aeon Mall when its doors open in June. Aeon Co and Aeon Mall Co officials could not be reached for comment.