ECG to have more overseas offices, franchisees

Singapore

HAVING its financial muscle beefed up with the backing of a listed parent company, ECG Property Services is in major expansion mode. It is setting up two more overseas offices in the next six months and aims to ramp up its new franchise arm with at least six franchisees in the next 18 months.

This follows swiftly ECG's opening of four overseas offices in Taiwan, Cambodia, Japan and Malaysia since Singapore-listed Teho International completed the S$17 million takeover of ECG in November.

By having a strong overseas presence, ECG is gunning for a higher net margin of 18 per cent by the third quarter of 2017 for its agency business under ECG Property Pte Ltd.

Its focus on marketing overseas projects, where margins are higher thanks to lower commission cuts for overseas licensed agents, has already resulted in a net profit margin of 10-12 per cent for its agency business this year - compared to the average 4-5 per cent margins clocked by the l…