Alibaba: Solid 2Q 2020 Results as Stock Price Slips

Technology, Consumer Staples Author: Niko Yang Editor: Luke Sheehan Nov 06, 2020 04:10 PM (GMT+8)

The company's cloud arm is due to break even in 2021.

Image credit: Claudio Schwarz/Unsplash

Alibaba (09988:HK, BABA:NYSE) revealed its 2Q financials ending on 30 September, including revenue increased by 30% to CNY 155.10 billion, year-on-year. The primary growth consists of 26% and 60% rises in the core commerce business and cloud division.

Apart from the topline, BABA showed decent profitability, hitting CNY 47.53 billion Adjust EBITDA. Under the GAAP rule, the net income was down by 63% to CNY 26.5 billion, which is topped by 44% based on the non-GAAP standard.  

The stock price slid by 4.34% in Hong Kong's Friday trading session on the news. It was also dragged down by Ant's stalled IPO two days ago.

Alibaba continues to expand all business lines. Core commerce revenue grew by 29% to CNY 130.92 billion, indicating many improvements. For example, the key performance indicator comprised of annual active consumers was 757 million by the end of Q3 2020, a net increase of 15 million. Tmall platform's gross merchandise value (GMV) grew 21% year-over-year. Besides, GMV generated by its live streaming portal 'Taobao Live' exceeded CNY 350 billion.

BABA's other commerce businesses like wholesale, international commerce, logistics and local consumer services all saw decent expansions.

Another key growth for the world's biggest online commerce company: Alibaba Cloud's revenue was up by 60%, hitting CNY 14.90 billion in this quarter, 10% of its total revenue. The company stated that it kept gaining traction from clients in the Internet, finance and retail sectors. By the end of Q3 2020, about 60% of public enterprises in A-share were using Alibaba Cloud.

In addition, Alibaba's digital media and entertainment topline lifted 8% to CNY 8.07 billion; innovation initiatives and others also jumped by 10%.