Chip Eng Seng looks poised for take-off

IN a property market where heavyweights such as CapitaLand and City Developments are in the limelight, a relatively small company like Chip Eng Seng Corporation appears to have escaped the attention of most analysts.

Although earnings in recent years have varied - from as low as S$57.2 million in 2015 to as high as S$280.7 million in 2014 - the group has been quietly putting its chess pieces in play and is worth a closer look.

Chip Eng Seng has come a long way from its humble beginning in the 1960s when Lim Tiam Seng entered the construction business as a subcontractor. In 1994, his son-in-law Raymond Chia joined the group, which was by then a mid-sized construction group, assisting with small-scale property developments and helping the group to attain ISO certification for its construction business in 1996.