Realtor HSR's commission scheme shakes status quo

Singapore

A FORMER banker and a major shareholder of two Singapore-listed companies, Tong Kooi Ong is one man whose penchant for shaking up the business turf and needling the big boys with his niche-market ideas in Malaysia has won him both admirers and arch rivals.

Now, amid a relatively torpid real estate market in Singapore and as property brokers grapple to protect their income from further injury, Mr Tong is at it again - this time through HSR International Realtors, a firm owned by Catalist-listed 3Cnergy which he majority owns since March last year.