Alibaba's revenue of 941.1 billion yuan increased by more than 8% to a new high, and it plans to pay a dividend of 28.9 billion yuan, and has spent 34.7 billion yuan on repurchases in the first quarter

Yangtze River Business Daily News ● Yangtze River Business Daily reporter Huang Cong

Driven by AI and overseas e-commerce, Alibaba's performance has grown rapidly.

On May 14, Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) released its results for fiscal year 2024 (April 2023 - March 2024), with the company's revenue increasing by 8.34% to 941.168 billion yuan, the best in history, and adjusted EBITA increasing by 12% year-on-year to 165.028 billion yuan.

Alibaba's overseas related business continued to maintain a strong momentum, among which, in the first quarter of 2024, Alibaba International Digital Business Group's revenue increased by 45% year-on-year, and the quarterly overall orders of its retail platform increased by 20% year-on-year.

Alibaba expects its revenue to return to double-digit growth in the second half of fiscal 2025, driven by AI and overseas e-commerce.

According to the financial report, Alibaba's board of directors has approved the payment of dividends for fiscal year 2024, including annual regular cash dividends and one-time special cash dividends, with a total dividend of about US$4 billion (about 28.9 billion yuan).

In the first quarter of 2024, the company repurchased 524 million ordinary shares (equivalent to 65 million American depositary shares) for a total of US$4.8 billion (about 34.7 billion yuan), which is significantly more than in the previous quarter.

The growth rate of new merchants on Tmall exceeded 100%

According to the financial report, Alibaba's revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024 (the first quarter of natural year 2024, hereinafter referred to as the "first quarter of 2024") was 221.874 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7%, exceeding market expectations; Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBITA) were 23.969 billion yuan, down 5% year-on-year. In fiscal 2024, Alibaba's revenue increased by 8.34% to 941.168 billion yuan, the best in history, and adjusted EBITA increased by 12% year-on-year to 165.028 billion yuan.

In the first quarter of 2024, Alibaba's profits declined. Ali said in the financial report that the decline in profit in the first quarter of 2024 was mainly due to increased investment in e-commerce business and retention incentives granted to rookie employees. Net profit, which reflects investment gains and losses, declined due to a decrease in the market value of the listed companies in which it invested. Excluding investment losses, equity incentive expenses, impairment of intangible assets, etc., non-GAAP net profit for the first quarter of 2024 was RMB24.418 billion.

Wu Yongming, CEO of Alibaba Group, said that the first-quarter results showed that Alibaba's strategy was working and that Alibaba was returning to the growth track. "We are also pleased to see the accelerated growth of our customers and related cloud computing revenues for our AI products, and we will continue to firmly execute our strategic focus in the future and seize growth opportunities for the future."

In terms of business segments, the performance of Taobao and Tmall in the first quarter of 2024 comprehensively exceeded market expectations and became an important bright spot.

According to the financial report, in the first quarter of 2024, driven by the strong growth in the number of purchased users and transaction frequency, Taotian Group achieved revenue of 93.216 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4%, and customer management fee income increased by 5% year-on-year. Among them, the total transaction volume and the number of orders on Taobao and Tmall have achieved double-digit year-on-year growth, and the number of 88VIP members has exceeded 35 million, also maintaining double-digit growth.

According to the store opening data released by Tmall in the first quarter of 2024, the number of new merchants increased by 60% year-on-year, and fields such as sports and outdoor, smart home, and health and wellness have become new growth hotspots, with the year-on-year growth rate of new merchants exceeding 100%.

There is nearly $30 billion available for buybacks

In the first quarter of 2024, Alibaba Cloud's revenue increased by 3% year-on-year, of which core public cloud product revenue achieved double-digit year-on-year growth, and AI-related revenue growth accelerated, continuing to achieve triple-digit year-on-year growth. At the same time, Alibaba Cloud continued to be profitable, with Adjusted EBITA up 45% year-over-year.

Alibaba also said that the explosion of AI technology innovation and application has driven the growth of demand for traditional cloud computing, and also brought new growth space for Alibaba Cloud. At present, Alibaba Cloud has established strategic cooperation with most of the leading Chinese large-scale model companies. On the first anniversary of its launch, Alibaba's self-developed large model Tongyi Qianwen released version 2.5 of Tongyi Qianwen on May 9.

Alibaba's overseas related business continued to maintain strong momentum, with Alibaba International Digital Business Group's revenue increasing by 45% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024, and the overall quarterly orders of its retail platforms increasing by 20% year-on-year.

According to the financial report, the strong performance of Alibaba's overseas e-commerce is mainly driven by the growth of cross-border business, especially the Choice business of the AliExpress platform. AliExpress continued to achieve strong year-on-year order growth in the first quarter, and the synergy with Cainiao in cross-border logistics further strengthened its competitiveness, with the 5-day and 10-day delivery completion rates of cross-border parcels doubling year-on-year.

In the first quarter of 2024, the revenue from cross-border logistics fulfillment services supporting AliExpress drove Cainiao's quarterly revenue to increase by 30% year-on-year.

Alibaba pointed out that during the quarter, Cainiao withdrew its IPO and continued to enhance synergy with domestic and foreign e-commerce businesses, provide differentiated and high-quality services, improve logistics efficiency and user experience, and continue to support Cainiao to promote the construction of a global intelligent logistics network. During the quarter, Cainiao has added 4 new countries to the coverage of high-quality logistics services from 5 to 10 days, covering a total of 14 countries.

At the same time, Alibaba's other business groups continued to improve their operating efficiency. Local Life Group's quarterly revenue increased by 19% year-on-year, and its annual revenue was nearly 60 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 25%. In fiscal year 2024, Dawen Entertainment Group's revenue increased by 15% year-on-year and narrowed its losses.

It is worth mentioning that Alibaba's board of directors has approved the payment of dividends for fiscal year 2024, including annual regular cash dividends and one-time special cash dividends, with a total dividend of about US$4 billion (about 28.9 billion yuan).

It is understood that this is the second time Alibaba has announced an annual dividend, with a total annual dividend of about $2.5 billion in fiscal 2023.

In addition, Alibaba continued to implement its share repurchase program to continuously improve shareholder returns. In the first quarter of 2024, Alibaba repurchased 524 million ordinary shares (equivalent to 65 million American depositary shares) for a total of US$4.8 billion (about 34.7 billion yuan) under the share repurchase program, which is significantly more than the previous quarter. Currently, the company has nearly $30 billion on its books available for share buybacks.

In the subsequent conference call, Alibaba expects the group's revenue to return to double-digit growth in the second half of fiscal 2025, driven by AI and overseas e-commerce.

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