Alibaba said revenue growth for its fiscal year to end March 2017 will accelerate, Bloomberg reported following a press event, noting this was the company’s first financial forecast since going public in 2014.
The company sees revenues rising least 48 percent as it pushes into new markets and businesses beyond e-commerce. Part of that growth comes from Alibaba’s rapid deal-making: it spent about USD 18.7 billion on acquisitions and stock buybacks over the past year, including on e-commerce site Lazada Group. Revenues should rise more than 36 percent this year if revenue from Lazada and streaming video service Youku Tudou are excluded, CFO Maggie Wu said during an investor conference Tuesday. That compares with 33 percent growth the previous year. Analysts were expecting 40 percent revenue growth on average for fiscal 2017.
The guidance reflects how Alibaba is moving into untapped rural markets, exploring business abroad and investing in new sources of income from online media to cloud computing. The company, which is trying to counter the impact of a slowing Chinese economy, bought Youku to expand into online video and Lazada to gain a foothold in Southeast Asia.
Alibaba’s decision to release financial guidance comes after the US Securities Exchange Commission began looking into its accounting practices. The company is cooperating with the probe. Alibaba had excluded Cainiao from its results to comply with GAAP accounting rules, Wu said.
