Alibaba Shares Rise Nearly 5% on Quarterly Earnings Beat following Biggest Overhaul

BEIJING, August 10 (TiPost)— U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. rose as much as 7.4% and settled 4.6% higher to US$99.21, the highest close since August 1. Alibaba stock outperformed market after China’s top e-commerce company released stronger-than-expected growth across its main businesses, underlining preliminary results of its biggest overhaul earlier this year.

Credit：Visual China

Alibaba recorded revenue of RMB234.16 billion (US$32.29 billion) in the quarter ended June 30, beating the Wall Street estimates of RMB223.75 billion, according to a filling on Thursday. Revenue that quarter increased 14% year-over-year (YoY), the biggest yearly increase since the third quarter of 2021. Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders surged 51% YoY to RMB34.33 billion, also topped expected RMB28.66 billion. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per American depositary share (ADS) were RMB17.37, up 48% YoY.   

Thursday witnessed Alibaba’s first report of financial results since it launched its most important reorganization in March. This is also the last financial report under Alibaba Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang, or, Zhang Yong, who will step down from both roles to focus on its cloud unit in September. From September, 10, Eddie Yongming Wu, the Chairman of Taobao and Tmall, will be the new CEO and the Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai will succeed Daniel Zhang as the Chairman. Zhang will continue to lead Alibaba Cloud.

Chinese online shopping leader announced in late March to split into six business groups, including Taobao Tmall Group, Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group, Local Services Group, Cainiao Smart Logistics Network Limited, Cloud Intelligence Group, Digital Media and Entertainment Group. Five of these major business groups will have the flexibility to raise external capital and potentially to seek its own IPO, with the exception of Taobao & Tmall Group, which will remain wholly-owned by Alibaba Group. Daniel Zhang called the move “the most significant governance overhaul” in Alibaba’s history and said each business group is fully responsible for its performance, with financial independence.

In the second quarter of the year, Alibaba’s core business segment Taobao and Tmall Group posted revenue of RMB114.95 billion with a 12% YoY increase, partly driven by a successful 6.18 shopping festival that generated solid growth in order volume and average order value. Taobao app grew average daily active users (DAU) by 6.5% YoY that quarter. Alibaba said purchasing demands in 6.18 increased from from a broader range of consumers, including 88VIP members whose spending in the festival had a double-digit growth.  

As the fastest growth segment in June quarter, Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (ADIC) generated RMB22.12 billion with a 41% YoY increase, out of which the international commerce retail climbed 60% YoY to RMB17.14 billion. Highlighting the overseas expansion, Alibaba said the combined order growth of ADIC’s retail business gained around 25% YoY, driven by solid performance from all major retail

Alibaba’s cloud division posted the smallest annual growth in the second quarter. Sales from Cloud Intelligence Group gained 4% YoY to RMB25.12 billion, slightly better than the estimated growth of 3%. Revenue growth was partly offset by efforts to manage revenue from project-based cloud services, Alibaba said. Moreover, the business successfully turned negative growth of 3% in the previous quarter to the positive. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization (EBITA) more than doubled from a year ago, driven by reduced colocation and bandwidth costs of DingTalk, an intelligent collaboration workplace platform integrated into generative artificial intelligence (AI) model Tongyi Qianwen in the quarter.

“Alibaba delivered a solid quarter as we continue to execute our Reorganization, which is beginning to unleash new energy across our businesses,” said Daniel Zhang in the financial report. The chief executive sounded cautiously optimistic at an earnings call. He said China’s latest macro data indicates some uncertainties in the pace of post-Covid-19 recovery, but Alibaba’s businesses demonstrated encouraging trends as economic and consumer activities continue to resume.

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