Alibaba beats revenue estimates on demand for niche China shopping services

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd on Thursday beat expectations for fourth-quarter revenue, as growing demand for some of its niche online shopping services in China offset weakness at its main marketplaces caused by the country's COVID-19 lockdowns.

U.S.-listed Alibaba shares, which have lost roughly a third of their value so far this year, were up about 5% in premarket trading.

Revenue in Alibaba's cloud computing division rose 12% to 18.97 billion yuan in the reported quarter. At the core commerce unit, its largest, revenue rose 8% to 140.33 billion yuan.

The company, however, said it would not issue a forecast for the new fiscal year, citing pandemic-related risks and uncertainties.

Rival JD.com Inc beat estimates for quarterly revenue last week as more people shopped for groceries and other essentials online, although it warned of a hit from supply-chain disruptions and sluggish consumption in the coming quarters.

Overall, Alibaba's revenue rose 9% to 204.05 billion yuan ($30.35 billion) in the quarter. Analysts on average had expected revenue of 199.25 billion yuan, according to Refinitiv data.

Annual active consumers on its platforms reached about 1.31 billion for the fiscal year, including over 1 billion consumers in China for the first time.

Net income attributable to shareholders fell 59% to 61.96 billion yuan in the fourth quarter ended March 31, primarily due to losses associated with its equity investments in publicly traded companies.

Ant Group, Alibaba's fintech affiliate, reported a profit of about 22 billion yuan for the quarter ended December, according to Alibaba's filings on Thursday, compared with 21.76 billion yuan a year ago.

($1 = 6.7240 Chinese yuan renminbi)