Alibaba’s Sales Slow Amid Regulatory Woes For Ant Group’s Mega IPO

Alibaba Group’s revenue growth continued to slow last quarter. The e-commerce giant reported that its revenue increased 30% in the September quarter to about $22.8 billion. Although the figure was above expectations, the torrid pace of growth seen in Alibaba’s main business unit has been slowing.

Alibaba’s core commerce business grew 29% last quarter, the slowest past pace in more than four years when excluding the March quarter that was most affected by the pandemic. Alibaba’s core commerce business grew 40% during the the same quarter in 2019, and it was 56% the year before.

Monthly active users of Alibaba’s hallmark e-commerce services such as Taobao totaled 881 million in September, up 7 million over June, Alibaba said in a statement released Thursday. The Hangzhou-based company said that it had benefited from a higher purchase frequency and consumer spending in the post-Covid-19 environment in China.

E-commerce has surged globally this year as physical stores stay shut in some countries as a pandemic containment measure and shoppers order online to avoid going out where they might get infected. China tracked most of its 86,151 coronavirus cases in January and February.

Alibaba’s third-quarter cloud computing revenue expanded 60% from a year earlier to $2.2 billion on business from the finance, retail and internet fields, the statement says. As of September 30, it says, nearly two of every three Chinese A-share listed companies were Alibaba Cloud customers and their spending increased 45% this past quarter versus the same of a year ago.

Alibaba’s net income dropped 60% this past quarter to $4.2 billion because the group made a one-time gain last year on its one-third equity interest in Ant Group, although Alibaba’s fintech affiliate suddenly finds itself in limbo.

New draft regulations were rolled out on the mainland this week that could force Ant to rethink its business model. Ant had been set to raise $35 billion in in the world’s largest IPO that was due to begin trading in Shanghai and Hong Kong on Thursday.

Jack Ma, Alibaba’s cofounder and Ant’s biggest individual shareholder, met with Chinese officials earlier in the week to discuss the new regulations that will have an impact on Ant’s operations, such as restrictions on capital and borrowing.

“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,” said Alibaba’s CEO Daniel Zhang.

Alibaba share prices fell 2.7% Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, but Zacks Investment Research expects strength ahead. “We are looking for an above average return…relative to the market in the next few months,” Zacks said Thursday on its website. “The financial health and growth prospects (of Alibaba) demonstrate its potential to perform inline with the market.”