Alibaba Q3'21 profit climbs 21% YOY, tops estimates

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. on Feb. 2 reported a 21% year-over-year boost in fiscal third-quarter earnings, driven by strong revenue growth from its core commerce retail and cloud computing segments.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2020, adjusted diluted net income per American depositary share jumped 21% to 22.03 yuan from 18.19 yuan reported a year earlier, beating the third-quarter S&P Capital IQ consensus estimate for normalized EPS of 20.87 yuan.

Adjusted net income grew 27% year over year to 59.21 billion yuan from 46.49 billion yuan, while revenue for the period grew 37% year over year to 221.08 billion yuan from 161.46 billion yuan.

Alibaba's China commerce retail business recorded revenue of 153.68 billion yuan, up 39% from the year-ago period, while its international commerce retail business grew 37% year over year to 10.16 billion yuan.

Total core commerce revenue was 195.54 billion yuan, accounting for 89% of total group revenue for the quarter.

The company said it generated 498.2 billion yuan over the course of its 11-day 11.11 Global Shopping Festival sale event. Gross merchandise value for new products rose 35% year over year during the festival, Alibaba said.

Meanwhile, revenue from the cloud computing segment increased 50% year over year to 16.12 billion yuan, driven by strong growth in revenue from customers in the internet and retail industries and the public sector. The company said that, for the first time, Alibaba Cloud achieved positive EBITDA during the quarter.

Revenue from digital media, mainly generated from video hosting service Youku and browser business UCWeb, grew 1% to 8.08 billion yuan.

During the quarter, Alibaba completed its acquisition of a controlling stake in local hypermarket operator Sun Art Retail Group Ltd. and began consolidating Sun Art's results in its financial statements. Online purchases for the period, with a majority of supported by Alibaba's digital technology, represented 24% of Sun Art's sales of goods, according to the release.

Alibaba said annual active consumers on its retail marketplaces in China reached 779 million for the year to Dec. 31, 2020, an increase of 22 million users from the 12-month period ended Sept. 30, 2020.

As of Feb. 2, US$1 was equivalent to 6.46 Chinese yuan.