Alibaba Shrugs Off China Woes As Sales Surge

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has shrugged off the country's economic woes as it posted a 39% rise in revenues driven by a surge in sales via mobile devices.

US-listed shares in the business, founded by flamboyant entrepreneur Jack Ma, rose following the results for the fourth quarter to the end of March – despite a fall in underlying profit.

Revenue for the period climbed to 24.1bn yuan (£2.57bn), up from 17.4bn (£1.85bn) in the same period last year – a 39% increase which was the strongest growth rate for the past four quarters.

Alibaba's mobile revenues climbed by 149% to 13.1bn yuan (£1.39bn).

Finance director Maggie Wu said: "Our excellent results this quarter reflect the unique strength of our core e-commerce business despite challenging economic conditions, as well as the emerging momentum of our balanced portfolio of businesses from mobile media to cloud computing."

Net (LSE: 0LN0.L - news) profit excluding one-off costs fell 1% to 7.6bn yuan (£810m) as the company continued to invest heavily in new businesses.

Not all of the group's operations showed a rosy picture, with online finance arm Ant Financial Services recording a net loss in the quarter.

Alibaba has been grappling with a slowdown in China's economic growth, as well as signs of the breakneck expansion of e-commerce in recent years starting to taper off.

Neil Saunders, chief executive of retail consultancy Conlumino, said: "In posting its strongest revenue growth for the past four quarters, Alibaba has rounded off its fiscal year on a positive note.

"Although growth at the international division picked up strongly, it is China that has underpinned the group's success (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) ."