Exhicon Events Media Solutions is a company that builds the physical and operational backbone for trade fairs, conferences, and large-scale events, then collects fees from the exhibitors, sponsors, and delegates who use it. It started in 2010 when founder M.Q. Syed, who began his career as a wall-painting artist, scaled an in-house production unit in Mumbai into a public company that now describes itself as Asia’s only fully integrated events player. The recurring approach is to own the entire stack - the temporary structures, the permanent venues, the media platform that promotes the shows, and even the helicopters that fly people to them - so that it captures revenue at every stage rather than relying on third-party suppliers. # Business segments Four engines at different stages - a core exhibition-execution cash cow, an asset-heavy venue-ownership bet, an international trade-fair export push, and a niche aviation-logistics arm - each built to feed the next with the cash flows and capabilities of the one before. ## 1. Exhibition ecosystem: the integrated factory that builds and runs trade fairs **The company designs, constructs, markets, and operates large-scale exhibitions entirely with in-house inventory and labour, which means it keeps the margin that would otherwise go to middlemen and rental agencies.** - **Owns the tent, not just the plan** - it holds a proprietary inventory of over 1,200 prefabricated exhibition booths, 1,000 modular Maxima system units, and large-span hangar capacity of 5,000 square metres, all stored in a 200,000-square-foot warehouse in Mumbai and stocked across five Indian cities. Because it does not rent these structures from third parties, it avoids rental inflation and can reuse the same physical assets across multiple events in a single year. - **Turnkey from concept to crowd** - the company handles the full lifecycle of a trade fair: it dreams up the theme, enlists trade bodies as partners, markets the show to exhibitors, attracts visitors through advertising, and then hosts the event. In FY26, this engine executed more than 38 major exhibitions that drew 1.5 million business visitors and 9,000 domestic exhibiting companies. - **Upfront cash from exhibitor bookings** - revenue comes from multiple streams including exhibitor fees, sponsorship fees, entrance fees, stall-design fees, and venue-rental fees, with exhibitor bookings collected upfront, creating a lean cash cycle. About 30% of business comes from long-term contracts with corporates and industry bodies like CII and FICCI, and the company reports that 80% of its event business clients return for repeat work. - **Geo-cloning proven brands** - it takes a successful exhibition brand in one city and replicates it in another, using the existing reputation to reduce the risk of launching in a new location. It also plans to launch new in-house exhibition brands in segments such as interior design, hospitality, real estate, and textiles. - **Exclusive on-ground partner for a global discovery platform** - through a mutually exclusive partnership with 10Times.com, a platform connecting over 20 million users to events across 150 countries, the company acts as the exclusive on-ground execution partner for exhibitors in the Middle East, providing stall design, fabrication, branding, and logistics. ## 2. Venue as a service: owning the convention centres that generate recurring rent **Instead of just renting halls, the company is building and operating its own multipurpose convention venues under joint-venture and public-private partnership models, aiming for asset-light ownership and long-term rental income.** - **First owned venue is already operating** - the Messe Global Convention Centre in Pune, built as a joint venture with the Gaikwad family on a 300,000-square-foot plot, is now operational with a capacity for up to 45,000 attendees and a power supply of up to 10,000 KW. The company also designed and built the Messe Global Arena in Pune’s Kharadi district, a dedicated live-events venue with a 25,000-square-foot indoor arena, in just four months using its own in-house teams. - **Government land, company build** - it uses Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) and Public-Private Partnership frameworks to secure land without heavy upfront purchase costs. It won a bid to develop a convention and exhibition centre on 13.57 acres of government land in Mohali, Punjab, and signed an MoU with the Rajasthan government for a ₹100 crore venue in Jaipur. - **A pipeline of venues in Tier-2 cities** - the company has announced plans for over 15 multi-event venues in cities such as Indore, Nashik, and Meerut, and signed an MoU with India Exposition Mart Limited to jointly bid for and develop exhibition centres across Tier-2 India under the PPP model, with cumulative project potential exceeding ₹2,000-4,000 crore over the next three to five years. - **Recurring yield from each facility** - each venue is projected to generate over ₹40 crore in annual revenue with a profit-after-tax margin of 15-18%, and the Pune convention centre alone is estimated to deliver a steady-state EBITDA of ₹10-15 crore per year once stabilised. ## 3. International exhibitions: exporting the “Best of India” trade-fair brand **The company takes its proprietary exhibition intellectual property to foreign markets, organising trade fairs that connect Indian exporters with buyers in countries from Cambodia to Brazil.** - **Turnkey execution in Europe and the Middle East** - beyond its own branded shows, the company delivers exhibition and booth execution services in Germany, Italy, France, and the UAE, supported by a collaboration with TMP Group Sp.A for European event execution. - **Sales network spans over 50 countries** - the company maintains key operational hubs in India, Thailand, Dubai, Switzerland, and Hong Kong, and has established sales offices in Singapore, London, Shanghai, and Dubai to feed its international pipeline. ## 4. Aviation logistics: helicopter charters that serve pilgrims and corporate travellers **Through its majority-owned subsidiary United Helicharters, the company operates commercial non-scheduled helicopter services, adding a transport layer that feeds both religious tourism and its own MICE events.** - **Acquired a licensed operator with a five-year permit** - the company bought an 89.99% stake in United Helicharters from a unit of Qatar General Petroleum Corporation, gaining a DGCA Air Operator Permit valid until February 2031 and a fleet that has logged over 62,000 flying hours. - **Won the Kedarnath shuttle contract against established rivals** - United Helicharters outbid nine competitors to win the contract for helicopter shuttle services on the Mandakini Valley to Shri Kedarnath Ji route, awarded by the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority. - **Owns the aircraft, leases the operations** - it acquired an Airbus H125 helicopter through a fully paid transaction and deployed it under a dry lease structure, meaning United Helicharters retains ownership while the lessee handles day-to-day operations. # Group structure and partners **The company operates through a web of subsidiaries and joint ventures that extend its capabilities from venue construction in the UAE to music licensing in India, while a series of government and institutional partnerships supply the land and mandates for its venue pipeline.** - The company had five subsidiaries as of March 2025, including United Helicharters for aviation, Green Branch Contracting & Landscaping in the UAE for venue construction, and Maple Heights Business Center in Dubai, which operates a 15,000-square-foot facility near the Dubai World Trade Centre. - It acquired a 76% stake in Perfect Octave Limited, which holds a library of approximately 1,200 high-definition music IP tracks and generates revenue through media licensing, adding a content and live-entertainment revenue stream. - Strategic partners include India Exposition Mart Limited for jointly identifying, bidding, developing and managing exhibition and convention centers across Tier-2 cities, the governments of Rajasthan and Punjab for land and incentives, and ICICI Lombard for a partnership charter on exhibition insurance.