Events organizer Meorient turns to Hong Kong for expansion funds

The company, which holds trade exhibitions to showcase Chinese exports, is seeking fresh capital as a post-pandemic business boom subsides

Key Takeaways:

• The firm serves Chinese export-oriented enterprises and derives most of its revenue from exhibitions organized entirely in-house
• Meorient’s revenue fell about 7% in the first half of 2025 while net profit tumbled nearly 62%

By Lee Shih Ta

A commonly cited proverb offers a clue to detecting momentum shifts in China’s export economy: namely that ducks are the first to sense a change in river temperature.

The early indicator in this case is the business of trade fairs, which offers a foretaste of prospects for exporting industries more broadly. As the pace of China’s state-backed push for global expansion starts to flag, and post-pandemic demand eases off, the exhibition industry is feeling the pinch.

Against this backdrop, a leading player in the commercial trade show sector is turning to the capital markets for a funding boost. Zhejiang Meorient Commerce & Exhibition Inc. (300795.SH) has filed for a Hong Kong listing to add to its 2019 float on Shenzhen’s Nasdaq-style ChiNext.

Meorient is a leading organizer of product fairs that aim to connect Chinese exporters with buyers in international markets. The firm’s flagship Expo brands include Homelife, featuring lifestyle products and housewares, and Machinex, a showcase for industrial machines, tools and equipment.

Trade events wholly organized and run by Meorient serve as the core of the business. Citing third-party data, the company said revenue from self-organized overseas exhibitions accounted for 94.5% of its first-half turnover in 2025, with events spanning more than 30 countries including Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.

The research found that Meorient ranked first among China-based organizers of overseas exhibitions, based on 2024 revenue, with a market share of 45.4%, far ahead of the second-ranked provider at just 4.6%.

At the same time, its business is closely aligned to conditions in the overseas trade sector, as 98.8% of its clients are Chinese export-oriented enterprises.

Higher margins

While many exhibition companies rely heavily on venue operators or focus primarily on agency services, Meorient covers most of the tasks itself as the event organizer, selling booths directly to exhibitors and providing additional services. Agency services play only a minor role in its business, contributing less than 10% of revenues.

This organizer-led model has delivered stand-out margins. From 2022 to 2024, the company reported gross profits of 168 million yuan ($24 million), 412 million yuan and 374 million yuan, with gross margins largely ranging from 48% to 50%. The figures are higher than for companies acting primarily as agents or venue providers, where gross margins typically vary between 20% and 40%.

As the overall organizer, Meorient retains pricing power for exhibition booths and can flex its rates. Fixed costs such as venue rental, promotional activities and exhibition operations are spread over a larger base as the business achieves economies of scale.

Cross-border exhibitions rebounded strongly in 2023 after the Covid pandemic, but the industry has gradually returned to a lower base, with both demand and pricing tolerance weakening.

According to the listing application, the company’s revenue for the six months to the end of June fell 7.4% to about 241 million yuan from the same period of 2024. Meorient blamed the slippage on a different set of overseas exhibitions, with one fewer event in Indonesia compared with the year-earlier period.

At the same time, the company offered bigger price concessions to some customers to maintain its exhibitor numbers, which weighed on revenue per booth. In addition, Meorient has scaled back its online marketing services in recent years, generating lower revenues from this segment and dragging down the overall performance.

Profit plunge

The drop-off was even steeper on the bottom line. Net profit fell nearly 62% to about 15.54 million yuan in the first half of 2025, squeezed by marketing and R&D expenses as the company sought to protect its market share and keep up exhibitor numbers while also investing in AI and digital upgrades.

Still, the balance sheet looks to be in reasonable shape, offering ample short-term liquidity and scope for ongoing investment in overseas markets and platform improvements. At the mid-year point, total assets stood at about 836 million yuan, with liabilities amounting to around 250 million yuan and net assets at 586 million yuan. Cash and cash equivalents came to approximately 514 million yuan, while the current ratio was about 2.8 times.

In the listing document, the company outlined plans to spend the extra capital on technical innovation and expanding into more countries, as well as strengthening its logistics and developing exhibitions targeting new industries.

For a company with a highly international business, raising capital in Hong Kong could enhance visibility with global investors, support overseas acquisitions and partnerships, and enable shares to be used in future transactions. That said, its business is closely linked to the trade environment and the pace of Chinese corporate expansion overseas. The current conditions make it hard for the company to grow steadily in the near term, as reflected in the performance of its Shenzhen-listed shares. Meorient stock has fallen 17% this year, significantly underperforming the broader market.

In a crowded Hong Kong IPO arena, Meorient’s mature and steady business model appears to lack a starkly differentiating narrative. If the offering is priced too aggressively, the shares could face intense market pressure down the road.

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