The Chinese e-commerce group’s revenue missed the average estimate of 208.62 billion yuan by 25 analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.
Alibaba posted a net loss of 20.56 billion yuan in the July to September period, compared with net income of 5.37 billion yuan in the same quarter last year.
Alibaba said the shortfall was mainly due to “an increase in net losses arising from the decrease in market prices of the company’s equity investments in publicly traded companies”.
The group’s preferred pro forma earnings came in at 33.82 billion yuan, a 19% year-on-year increase.
Those earnings do not conform to generally accepted accounting principles and typically excludes nonoperational or noncash factors such as gains or losses arising from changes in the fair value of its investments.
“We generated another quarter of healthy revenue growth of 3% year-over-year in spite of the impact on consumption demand from the Covid-19 resurgence in China as well as slowing cross-border commerce due to increasing logistics costs and foreign currency volatility,” said Toby Xu, chief financial officer of Alibaba Group.
Xu also said the company would upsize its share repurchase programme by another US$15 billion, adding to a US$25 billion buyback announced in March.
The new repurchase programme will run until the end of fiscal 2025.
As of yesterday, the company said it had bought back about US$18 billion worth of its shares under the previously announced programme.
Total China commerce, which accounted for 68% of Alibaba’s revenue, stood at 135.43 billion yuan, and was down 1% from a year ago.
Alibaba’s most important source of revenue, online shopping platform Taobao and Tmall’s customer management fees, continued to shrink in the September quarter with a 7% year-over-year decline to 66.5 billion yuan.
That figure includes advertising income and commissions and accounts for 32% of its overall revenue.
Cloud computing, Alibaba’s second-largest revenue source, was 20.76 billion yuan, an increase of 4% year-over-year.
Alibaba shares fell 0.7% to HK$78.25 today.