|
Retail spending in China has sagged this year alongside the
government's strict zero-COVID policies that have led to
frequent snap lockdowns and hurt economic activity.
Alibaba has also had to contend with stiff competition from the
likes of Pinduoduo and ByteDance's Douyin - the Chinese version
of Tiktok - which have expanded their e-commerce offerings and
taken more market share.
The company has also yet to fully recover from a regulatory
crackdown on the tech sector that has curtailed growth
opportunities.
Revenue grew 3% to 207.18 billion yuan ($28.96 billion) in the
three months ended Sept. 30, compared with a Refinitiv consensus
estimate of 208.62 billion yuan drawn from 25 analysts.
Alibaba, which runs China's largest online marketplaces Tmall
and Taobao and owns a wide range of businesses from logistics to
cloud services, reported net loss attributable to shareholders
of 20.56 billion yuan in the quarter.
Excluding one-off items, Alibaba earned 12.92 yuan per American
Depository Share.
The current quarter has also been gloomy. Last week, the firm
did not disclose its "Singles Day" shopping festival sales tally
for the first time, saying only that the results were in line
with last year, which was its lowest ever growth.
Alibaba's financial affiliate, Ant Group, is still undergoing a
government-mandated revamp and has yet to revive plans for its
public market debut after its $37 billion attempt at a dual
listing was derailed at the last minute in late 2020.
Ant, which is 33% owned by Alibaba, logged a profit of 7.72
billion yuan for the quarter ending in June, down 63.2%
year-on-year. Alibaba reports its profit from Ant group one
quarter in arrears.
The company said in its earnings release it would raise its
share repurchase program by an additional $15 billion and extend
it to the end of the 2025 fiscal year.
Under the existing $25 billion share repurchase program, the
company said it had repurchased approximately $18 billion in
shares by November 16.
Alibaba said it will not complete its primary conversion of
shares to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by the end of 2022 as
originally announced in August.
($1 = 7.1540 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru and Josh Horwitz in
Shanghai; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Elaine Hardcastle)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
