Alibaba shares plunge nearly 11% after warning of slower growth
Shares of Alibaba plummeted in Hong Kong on Friday after the tech giant warned of weaker growth this year as China's economy slows and Beijing continues its regulatory crackdown.
Alibaba (BABA) dropped 10.7%, the steepest decline since its listing in the city in November 2019. The fall in Hong Kong followed a similar plunge Thursday in its share price on Wall Street after the company reported disappointing quarterly earnings and warned that results for the year will miss analysts' estimates.
So far this year, Alibaba's stock has dropped 40%, wiping about $234 billion from the value of the company. Friday's plunge dragged down Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index (HSI), which fell 1.1%.
Alibaba's sales grew 29% last quarter from a year ago, to $31.1 billion. Wall Street was expecting revenue of $32.1 billion. Earnings per share fell 38% from a year ago and were below expectations. The company said that sales for its current fiscal year should rise between 20% and 23% from a year ago. Analysts were predicting growth of nearly 28%.
Alibaba and fellow Chinese tech giants Tencent (TCEHY), Baidu (BIDU) and TikTok owner ByteDance have been subject to increased regulatory scrutiny from the Chinese government in the past year.
Last November, Beijing yanked the IPO for Alibaba's Ant Group affiliate, which owns payment app giant Alipay. In the year that followed, the Chinese government's regulatory might has changed industries ranging from tech and finance to gaming, entertainment and private education.
In April, regulators slapped a record $2.8 billion fine on Alibaba, accusing it of behaving like a monopoly. Meituan, Tencent, Pinduoduo (PDD), and other tech firms have also been investigated or fined over alleged anti-competitive behavior.
In its earnings release on Thursday, Alibaba cited a "regulatory environment that affect Alibaba's business operations" and "privacy and data protection regulations and concerns" as some of the uncertainties it was facing.
Alibaba's giant cloud business continues to post impressive results though. Revenue rose 33% from a year ago for that unit. Alibaba Cloud has helped the company expand beyond China as well.
"Alibaba continued to firmly invest into our three strategic pillars of domestic consumption, globalization, and cloud computing to establish solid foundations for our long-term goal of sustainable growth in the future," Alibaba chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang said in a statement.
"Amid an unprecedented year following tightened regulation, without much flexibility, [Alibaba] will need to navigate through the multiple headwinds while continuing to invest in technology innovation, globalization and expand its domestic consumer reach," Citi analysts said in a research report on Friday.
Alibaba's results come one week after the company wrapped up its annual Singles Day online shopping extravaganza. Chinese consumers continued to shop for bargains during the event, but sales growth for the platform was slower than last year.
Part of that may be because of the regulatory environment, but Alibaba is also facing tougher competition as well as a slowdown in the Chinese economy.
During a conference call with analysts Thursday, Zhang said "economic headwinds, coupled by intensifying market competition also affected our core commerce business in China."
He noted that there was a slowdown in apparel and general merchandise but that consumer electronics and furniture demand remained resilient.
Rival JD.com (JD) also reported earnings Thursday. Sales and profits topped forecasts, and the company's shares closed up 6% in New York.
On Friday in Hong Kong, JD.com's shares rose more than 9%.
"Consumers and business partners increasingly trust and rely on JD, and we were able to outpace the industry growth in China in the third quarter," JD.com president Lei Xu said in the earnings release.
JD.com's Hong Kong-listed stock has surged more than 20% in the past six months, while Alibaba shares have fallen more than 30% during the same time frame.
在警告增长放缓后，阿里巴巴股价暴跌近 11%
周五，阿里巴巴的股价在香港暴跌，此前这家科技巨头警告称，随着中国经济放缓和北京继续监管监管，今年的增长将放缓。
阿里巴巴 (BABA) 下跌 10.7%，是自 2019 年 11 月在香港上市以来的最大跌幅。 在该公司公布令人失望的季度收益并警告称，其在华尔街的股价周四也出现类似暴跌之后，香港股市下跌今年将低于分析师的预期。
今年到目前为止，阿里巴巴的股价已经下跌了 40%，公司价值蒸发了约 2340 亿美元。周五的暴跌拖累香港基准恒生指数 (HSI) 下跌 1.1%。
阿里巴巴上个季度的销售额同比增长 29%，达到 311 亿美元。华尔街预计收入为 321 亿美元。每股收益较上年同期下降 38%，低于预期。该公司表示，本财年的销售额应比去年同期增长 20% 至 23%。分析师预计增长近 28%。
过去一年，阿里巴巴和中国科技巨头腾讯 (TCEHY)、百度 (BIDU) 和 TikTok 所有者字节跳动都受到了中国政府加强监管的审查。
去年 11 月，北京取消了阿里巴巴旗下蚂蚁集团子公司的 IPO，该子公司拥有支付应用巨头支付宝。在接下来的一年里，中国政府的监管可能已经改变了从科技和金融到游戏、娱乐和私立教育的行业。
4 月，监管机构对阿里巴巴处以创纪录的 28 亿美元罚款，指责其行为像垄断企业。美团、腾讯、拼多多（PDD）和其他科技公司也因涉嫌反竞争行为而被调查或罚款。
在周四发布的财报中，阿里巴巴将“影响阿里巴巴业务运营的监管环境”和“隐私和数据保护法规和担忧”列为其面临的一些不确定性。
不过，阿里巴巴庞大的云业务继续取得令人瞩目的成绩。该部门的收入比一年前增长了 33%。阿里云也帮助该公司扩展到中国以外的地区。
阿里巴巴董事长兼首席执行官张勇在一份声明中表示：“阿里巴巴继续坚定地投资于我们的国内消费、全球化和云计算三大战略支柱，为我们未来可持续增长的长期目标奠定坚实的基础。”
花旗分析师周五在一份研究报告中表示：“在监管收紧后前所未有的一年，没有太多灵活性，[阿里巴巴] 将需要克服多重阻力，同时继续投资于技术创新、全球化和扩大其国内消费者范围。” .
阿里巴巴的业绩是在该公司结束一年一度的“光棍节”网上购物盛会后一周公布的。活动期间，中国消费者继续购买便宜货，但该平台的销售增长较去年放缓。
部分原因可能是监管环境，但阿里巴巴也面临着更激烈的竞争以及中国经济放缓。
在周四与分析师的电话会议上，张说“经济逆风，加上市场竞争的加剧，也影响了我们在中国的核心商业业务。”
他指出，服装和一般商品的增长放缓，但消费电子产品和家具的需求保持弹性。
竞争对手京东（JD）周四也公布了财报。销售额和利润超过预期，该公司股价在纽约收盘上涨 6%。
周五在香港，京东股价上涨超过 9%。
“消费者和商业伙伴越来越信任和依赖京东，我们能够在第三季度超越中国的行业增长，”京东总裁徐磊在财报中表示。
京东在香港上市的股票在过去六个月中飙升了 20% 以上，而阿里巴巴的股价在同一时间段内下跌了 30% 以上。
