(Yicai Global) Nov. 6 -- Alibaba Group Holding reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue days after China put the brakes on the USD35 billion listing of its fintech affiliate Ant Group.

Revenue rose 30 percent to CNY155.1 billion(USD23.4 billion)in the three months ended Sept. 30 from a year earlier, the Hangzhou-based company said in an earnings report released yesterday. That was a little higher than analysts foresaw.

Alibaba said revenue was boosted by the quickening shift to digital due to the coronavirus outbreak as well as China’s swift economic recovery after the country brought the virus under control. Gains stemmed largely from growth in retail, cloud computing and the company’s Cainiao logistics arm, it said.

Net profitfell 60 percent to CNY28.8 billion from a year ago, when Alibabareported a substantial one-time gain from receiving a 32 percent stake in Ant. If the one-time gain and other items are factored out, non-GAAP net profitwas CNY47.1 billion, a 44 percent increase.

Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares [HKG: 9988] closed 4.3 percent lower today at HKD282 (USD36.37) each after a 2.7 percent drop in its New York-traded stock [NYSE: BABA] yesterday to USD287.75.

The shares began declining earlier this weekafter the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges declared a halt to Ant’s initial public offering.Hangzhou-based Ant, the operator of mobile payment platform Alipay, was set to raise at least USD33 in the world’s largest-ever IPO yesterday, a dual listing that also would have valued the company at about USD312 billion.

But the Shanghai Stock Exchange said in statement late on Nov. 3 that changes in the “financial technology regulatory environment” meant that Ant “may no longer meet the conditions for offering and listing, or the requirements for information disclosure.” The Hong Kong Stock Exchange announced its halt without comment.

Financial regulators, including the central bank, had summoned founder Jack Ma, Chairman Eric Jing and President Simon Hu for talks on Nov. 2.

“As Ant Group’s major shareholder, Alibaba is actively evaluating the impact on our business in response to the recently proposed changes in the fintech regulatory environment, and will take appropriate measures accordingly,” Chief Executive Daniel Zhang told analysts on a call after the quarterly results were released.

Core Commerce Strength

Alibaba had total core commerce revenue of CNY130.9 billion over the reported period, 84 percent of its total and up 29 percent from a year earlier, the results showed. Revenue from its China commerce retail business jumped 26 percent to CNY95.5 billion, 62 percent of the total.

Mobile monthly active users on various apps that access Alibaba's Chinese retail marketplaces reached 881 million in September in a 7 million gain from June. For the 12 months ended Sept. 30, the ranks of these annual active users swelled to 757 million in a net 15 million rise from the last fiscal quarter. Taobao Deals, which targets price-conscious consumers, had over 70 million MAUs in September.

Taobao Live yielded over CNY350 billion in gross merchandise volume for the two months that ended Sept. 30.GMV charts a total cash value for goods sold via a defined marketplace over a given time span in online retailing.

Revenue from Cainiao contributed an extra percentage point from a year earlier to make up 6 percent of the group's total during the period, up 73 percent on the year at CNY8.2 billion, the results showed, primarily due to the increases in both average revenue per order and the volume from its fast-growing cross-border and international commerce retail businesses. Cainiao now has logistics networks in 15 countries and regions delivering nearly 4 million cross-border packages daily.

Revenues from the firm's cloud computing business rose 60 percent on the year to CNY14.9 billion. Of global cloud computing players, Alibaba Cloud grew two times as fast as Amazon’s cloud business and is leaps ahead of Microsoft. Alibaba Cloud is not yet profitable, but is close. Alibaba executives forecast the cloud business will be in the black within two quarters after the report’s release.

“We remain focused on our three long-term growth engines -- domestic consumption, cloud computing and data intelligence, and globalization -- to effectively capture opportunities from the ongoing changes in consumer demand and acceleration of digitalization of businesses across our digital economy,” Zhang said in the report.

Editor: Ben Armour, XiaoYi