Alibaba beats estimates on record Singles' Day sales

[February 13, 2020]  By Akanksha Rana and Josh Horwitz

(Reuters) - China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd beat analysts' estimates for quarterly results on Thursday, driven by record sales during its annual Singles' Day shopping blitz and demand for its cloud computing business.

The logo of Alibaba Group is seen during Alibaba Group's 11.11 Singles' Day global shopping festival at the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, November 10, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

The e-commerce giant usually reports its highest revenue in the December quarter due to its mega "Singles' Day" shopping bonanza in November. The company said sales during the 24-hour shopping event hit a record $38.4 billion in 2019.

Alibaba primarily generates revenue by selling advertising and promotional services to third-party merchants that list products on its e-commerce sites, Taobao and Tmall.

The company said it was supporting the fight against the coronavirus outbreak in China by ensuring supply of daily necessities and introducing relief measures for its merchants.

Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial's MYBank unit has said it would offer 20 billion yuan ($2.86 billion) in loans to companies in China in the wake of the outbreak.

The outbreak, which originated in the city of Wuhan, has resulted in companies laying off workers, seeking cheaper funding and struggling to restart production after an extended new year holiday as supply chains remained disrupted.

The epidemic is expected to pile more pressure on China's economy and comes as the country signed a Phase 1 deal with the United States to ease a protracted trade war that had weighed on its growth.

Sales in the company's core commerce business jumped 38% to 141.48 billion yuan ($20.26 billion) in the third quarter ended Dec. 31, while revenue at its cloud computing unit surged 62% to 10.72 billion yuan.

Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders rose to 52.31 billion yuan from 33.05 billion yuan.

Excluding items, the company earned 18.19 yuan per American Depository Share. Analysts had expected 15.75 yuan per ADS, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Revenue rose about 38% to 161.46 billion yuan, beating estimates of 159.28 billion yuan.

U.S.-listed shares of the company were up nearly 1% at $226.30 in premarket trade.

(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru and Josh Horwitz in Shanghai; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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