Alibaba Q2 revenue up 54% to $2.7B, profit down 38.6%; mkt cap more than Walmart

World's largest e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has reported a 54 per cent increase in its revenues for the quarter ended September 30, 2014, to RMB 16.83 billion ($2.7 billion) over the prior-year quarter. Net income for the period, however, declined 38.6 per cent to $494 million. The decrease was primarily due to share-based compensation charges and an increase in amortisation of intangible assets, it said in the first quarterly earnings disclosure after listing on NYSE.

Adjusted for certain items, net income rose 15.5 per cent to $1.1 billion.

"We delivered a strong quarter with significant growth across our key operating metrics," said Jonathan Lu, chief executive officer of Alibaba Group.

"On our China retail marketplaces, gross merchandise volume for the quarter increased 49 per cent and annual active buyers increased 52 per cent year on year. We had 217 million monthly active users on our mobile commerce apps in September and $95 billion in mobile GMV for the 12 months ended September 2014. We are also encouraged by continued improvement of mobile monetisation which demonstrates the strong commercial intent of our users," he added.

The total GMV transacted on its China retail marketplaces for the quarter was $90.5 billion, an increase of 48.7 per cent over last year. GMV transacted on Taobao marketplace increased 38.2 per cent to $61.9 billion, while GMV transacted on Tmall was $28.65 billion, an increase of 77.8 per cent compared to the same quarter of 2013. The growth was primarily driven by an increase in number of active buyers.

Mobile GMV was $32.43 billion or 35.8 per cent of total GMV transacted on its China retail marketplaces last quarter, compared to 32.8 per cent in the quarter ended June 30 and 14.7 per cent in the same quarter of 2013. The growth was primarily driven by increases in the monthly active users accessing the firm's platforms through mobile devices.

The company's China retail marketplaces had 307 million annual active buyers in the 12 months ended September 30, 2014, compared to 202 million in the 12 months ended September 30, 2013, representing an increase of 52 per cent compared to the same period in 2013.

Mobile MAUs grew to 217 million in the month ended September 30, 2014, compared to 188 million in the month ended June 30, 2014, representing a net addition of 29 million MAUs in three months, and a 138.5 per cent increase from the 91 million in the month ended September 30, 2013.

Alibaba was recently listed on the New York Stock Exchange in a record $25 billion IPO, in which bulk of the money went to selling shareholders Yahoo among others including Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma.

Market cap

Meanwhile, the firm's market cap has crept up to top $256 billion after its share price rose around 1 per cent in early morning trades on Tuesday in the US after it disclosed its quarterly numbers. The shares were trading at around $103 apiece.

At this level it is now valued more than Walmart, the world's largest physical retailer. Walmart's market cap is around $247 billion. Alibaba had surpassed Amazon, in market value with its block buster listing. Amazon currently has a market cap of $140 billion.

Alibaba Group Holding had seen its share price shoot up on US listing and almost touched a high of $100 a share in intra-day trades on NYSE on day 1. It ended the first day at $93.89, up 38 per cent on its issue price, with a market cap of $232 billion.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)