New | Alibaba launches US$4 billion share buy-back as growth slows
E-commerce giant seeks to ease investor concerns after revenue misses market targets
Alibaba Group Holding, the world's largest e-commerce services provider, is embarking on a US$4 billion share buy-back plan to support its stock price amid uncertainties in China's economy.
New York-listed Alibaba, which reported on Wednesday its fiscal first-quarter revenue that missed analysts' estimates, said the repurchase of shares over a two-year period was primarily to offset dilution, such as from its share-based compensation programme.
That support could help ease investors' concerns as the company's pace of growth slowed the most in three years, nearly 12 months after its much-ballyhooed initial public offering in the United States.
Hangzhou-based Alibaba posted a 28 per cent increase in revenue for the quarter to June to 20.24 billion yuan (US$3.26 billion), up from 15.77 million in the same period last year.
That was below the US$3.38 billion consensus estimate from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg and the US$3.39 billion average from a Thomson Reuters SmartEstimate poll of analysts.
The less-than-expected turnover was attributed to gross merchandise volume - the amount of goods sold over the company's e-commerce platforms on the mainland - which rose slower than before.
