Deep-dive 2021-18: Pico Far East

Pico Far East (752 HK) is one of the largest service providers for the global exhibitions and events industry. Organisers hire Pico to decorate and set up exhibition booths for major events taking place in Asia and beyond.

The majority of revenues, at around 77%, comes from the exhibition and event business. The remainder comes from building interior designs of museums, theme parks, physical signage for brands such as Costa Coffee, Dairy Queen, KFC and Yoshinoya as well event management.

The Chia family founded Pico in Singapore in 1969. Younger brother Lawrence Chia took over in 1994, moving to Hong Kong, where he oversaw the Chinese business. Today, roughly half of revenues come from Greater China, where Pico has major production facilities and relationships with many large companies.

The exhibition & event business has been hit hard by COVID-19, especially outside of mainland China as travel has been restricted. But Pico has remained profitable throughout the pandemic and has net c…