Analysts predict record profit and revenue for Alibaba
Chinese e-commerce giant will announce results for fiscal year on Friday
Analysts expect no surprises when Alibaba Group, the world’s largest e-commerce services company, reports its earnings for the fiscal year to March 31 this Friday.
New York-listed Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, said in March that its gross merchandise volume (GMV) – the total value of goods sold on its domestic e-commerce platforms – surpassed 3 trillion yuan (HK$3.59 trillion) some 10 days before the close of its fiscal year.
“That is about US$476 billion, and, if the platforms we operate were a province, we would rank as the sixth-largest provincial economy in China,” Alibaba executive vice-chairman Joseph Tsai said in a blog post at the time.
On the back of that milestone, the Hangzhou-based company is forecast to post record profit and revenue figures.
Alibaba’s aggressive acquisitions and expansion into synergistic businesses ... could provide significant longer-term monetisation potential
BNP Paribas analysts estimated that Alibaba’s net profit would reach 43.15 billion yuan and total revenue hit 100.19 billion yuan, while Daiwa Capital Markets analysts predicted 42.59 billion yuan in net profit and 99.52 billion yuan in revenue.