Alibaba reports quarterly operating loss
Alibaba Group Holding Limited has announced its financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended March 31, 2021, revealing a loss from operations of RMB7,663 million (US$1,170 million) due to a RMB18,228 million (US$2,782 million) fine levied by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation pursuant to China’s Anti-monopoly Law.
BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS
In the quarter ended March 31, 2021:
Revenue was RMB187,395 million (US$28,602 million), an increase of 64% year-over-year.
Annual active consumers on our China retail marketplaces was 811 million for the twelve months ended March 31, 2021, an increase of 32 million from the twelve months ended December 31, 2020.
Mobile MAUs on our China retail marketplaces reached 925 million in March 2021, an increase of
23 million over December 2020.
Loss from operations was RMB7,663 million (US$1,170 million) due to a RMB18,228 million (US$2,782 million) fine levied by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation pursuant to China’s Anti-monopoly Law (the “Anti-monopoly Fine”).
Alibaba said excluding this one-time impact, the income from operations would have been RMB10,565 million (US$1,612 million), an increase of 48% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measurement, increased 18% year-over-year to RMB29,898 million (US$4,563 million). Adjusted EBITA, a non-GAAP measurement, increased
14% year-over-year to RMB22,612 million (US$3,451 million).
Net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders was RMB5,479 million (US$836 million), and net loss was RMB7,654 million (US$1,168 million), primarily due to the above-mentioned Antimonopoly Fine. Excluding this impact and certain other items, non-GAAP net income was RMB26,216 million (US$4,001 million), an increase of 18% year-over-year.
Diluted loss per ADS was RMB1.99 (US$0.30) and diluted loss per share was RMB0.25 (US$0.04 or HK$0.30), primarily due to the above-mentioned Anti-monopoly Fine. Excluding this impact and certain other items, non-GAAP diluted earnings per ADS was RMB10.32 (US$1.58), an increase of 12% year-over-year and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share was RMB1.29 (US$0.20 or HK$1.53), an increase of 12% year-over-year.
Net cash provided by operating activities was RMB24,183 million (US$3,691 million). NonGAAP free cash flow was an outflow of RMB658 million (US$100 million), compared to an outflow of RMB4,214 million in the same quarter of 2020.
In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021 revenue was RMB717,289 million (US$109,480 million), an increase of 41% year-over-year.
“Alibaba achieved a historic milestone of one billion annual active consumers globally in the fiscal year ended March 2021,” said Daniel Zhang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group.
“Our overall business delivered strong growth on a healthy foundation, with the Alibaba Ecosystem generating a
record US$1.2 trillion in GMV during this fiscal year. Such achievements were built on top of clear value
propositions that we offer to consumers and merchants. We remain very excited about the growth of China’s
consumption economy, which is benefiting from the acceleration of digitalization in all aspects of life and
work. We will continue to focus on customer experience and value creation through innovation, as we
pursue our mission to make it easy to do business anywhere in the digital era.”
“We surpassed our annual revenue guidance in fiscal year 2021 by achieving strong organic revenue growth
of 32% excluding the consolidation of the newly-acquired Sun Art. This was driven by robust performance
of our core commerce businesses as well as continued growth of Alibaba Cloud. Our adjusted EBITDA
grew 25% year-over-year while we increased investments in new businesses and key strategic growth
areas,” said Maggie Wu, Chief Financial Officer of Alibaba Group.
“We expect to generate over RMB930 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2022. Given the market potential and our proven profit and cash flow generation capabilities, we plan to use all of our incremental profits and additional capital in fiscal year 2022 to support our merchants and invest into new businesses and key strategic areas that will help us increase consumer wallet share and penetrate into new addressable markets.
