Alibaba (BABA) tops Q1 earnings estimates, approves Cloud Intelligence Group spin-off

Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) topped first-quarter earnings estimates but missed revenue expectations on Thursday.

The Chinese technology giant reported Q1 EPS of RMB10.71, RMB1.25 better than the analyst estimate of RMB9.46. However, revenue of RMB208.2 billion in the quarter, which rose 2% YoY, was below the consensus estimate of RMB209.02 billion.

Alibaba's NYSE-listed shares are down around 1% at the time of writing.

Online physical goods GMV on Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall platforms, excluding unpaid orders, declined mid-single-digit year-over-year.

Meanwhile, direct sales and other revenue decreased by 1% YoY, mainly due to a decrease in offline store sales, which was negatively impacted by Covid-19 disruption in January and seasonal volatility, as well as "normalizing grocery demand due to decrease in consumer hoarding behavior post-COVID-19."

"In an increasingly complex world, we have proactively transformed our organization to strengthen the competitiveness of our businesses through greater independence to address the evolving needs of different customers and capture new opportunities," said Daniel Zhang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group.

Zhang also revealed that the company has approved a full spin-off of the Cloud Intelligence Group via a stock dividend distribution to shareholders, with the intention for it to become an independent publicly listed company.

"We intend to structure the spin-off in the most tax-efficient way for our shareholders. Subject to the transactions, conditions and approvals described above, we target to complete the spin-off in the next 12 months," Alibaba revealed.

By Sam Boughedda

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