After a tumultuous year in Cambodia for Singapore-based TEHO International, the developers of the $500 million The Bay condominium project on Chroy Changvar peninsula said construction will begin early next year with a new marketing strategy after another managerial shakeup.

Announced on the Singapore Stock Exchange earlier this week, ECG (Cambodia) was bought out and formalized into the parent company ECG Property—a wholly owned subsidiary of TEHO International that handles all marketing and promotional activities.

Previously operated by the joint venture’s partner, Sok Bun, ECG Cambodia was purchased to a tune of $71,776, or what amounted to 45 per cent of the initial paid-up share capital. Currently, the unaudited net assets for ECG Cambodia as of July 2015 amounted to $169,836, the statement read.

While ECG Cambodia will still perform its duties as the acting real estate agency for The Bay, all marketing and promotional activities will be conducted at the head office back in Singapore.

Phua Cheng Boon, Financial Controller for TEHO International, said, “it is good to have full integration of our projects.”

“We will have somebody based in Singapore who will be able to run operations regionally as well,” he said.

It was previously reported by The Post that 100 condominium units had been sold since the soft launch in September. However, Phua declined to provide current figures.

“While we can’t disclose the level of sales, we are confident to say that construction will begin in the first quarter of 2016,” he said.

With a new marketing strategy, he added, the development “will not be about big exposure.”

TEHO International, which formally launched the project in February of this year, had spent $1.1 million on advertising and promotional activities, as well as around $600,000 in legal and professional expenses to promote the development, an annual filing in August stated.

While Sok Bun, who resigned from his position as director of the board, currently awaits trial for the beating of a former TV star, his shoes has since been filled by Yim Chhay Line, the daughter of Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Ly.

“She is a good asset to the group and I am confident that all the necessary requirements for construction have been achieved,” said Phua.

Kim Heang, CEO of Khmer Real Estate, said that a marketing shift to overseas investors is the “smartest” market strategy for The Bay, as it faces more competition and is also behind schedule.

When asked if The Bay would miss out on the local segment, Heang explained that it is too small, “so why [do] they need to waste time and money [on] the local segment?”

With a few soft approaches to buyers in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan recently, Phua said sales “have picked up.”

“We are doing this gradually because The Bay is a rather large project. We are going to all these different countries to do soft launches to get sufficient buying. We want to position [ourselves] as [a] more exclusive development,” he said.