Alibaba’s Q3 profit surges 56% on solid cloud business
Alibaba Group’s third one fourth net profit surged 56 % annually to $11.9 billion, buoyed by growth in its cloud computing and retail businesses.
Revenue for the three months closing December 31 soared 37 % annually to $33.8bn.
“Because of the rapid restoration of China’s economy, Alibaba had another very healthy one fourth … China was the only major overall economy to accomplish positive GDP [gross domestic product] growth this past year,” Daniel Zhang, chairman and chief executive of Alibaba, said.
“Our cloud computing business continues to expand market leadership and show good growth, reflecting the substantial potential of China’s nascent cloud computing market and also our years of investment on technology.”
Annual active consumers in Alibaba’s China retail marketplaces reached 779 million, while the monthly dynamic users reached 902 million within the last quarter.
“We delivered another solid quarter, with [an] adjusted EBITDA [revenue before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation] up 22 % year-over-year, while our solid free cashflow enabled us to help expand invest in strategic areas,” Maggie Wu, chief fiscal officer of Alibaba, explained.
“We are pleased our cloud organization achieved great adjusted EBITA through the quarter … these progresses reflect our long-term approach to organically incubate and expand businesses from start to profitability,” she added.
Alibaba has announced bumper outcomes despite “uncertainty” above the its financial affiliate marketer Ant Group. It said it was "unable to complete a good assessment" of the effect of Ant's stalled share market launch.
On November 3, Ant Group suspended its proposed dual listings and original general public offering on the Shanghai STOCK MARKET Star plank and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange just times before listings.
“Due to recent significant changes found in the FinTech regulatory environment found in China, Ant Group is in the process of developing it has the rectification plan, that may need to go through the relevant regulatory types of procedures,” Alibaba said.
“Therefore, Ant Group’s business prospects and IPO plans are at the mercy of substantial uncertainties. Presently, we are unable to make a total and fair evaluation of the impact these improvements and uncertainties could have on Alibaba Group,” it added.
A good formal update is however to come from Ant Group but Bloomberg quoted sources about Wednesday to report that Ant Group and the Chinese regulators have agreed on a plan to transform the FinTech giant to a financial holding company which will put it at par with banks with regards to capital requirements.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com
