Alibaba Group Holding:1st Take,F1Q18Results-Another All-Around Beat
Revenue reached Rmb50.2bn (+56% YoY, +30% QoQ), 3% higher than ourforecast and 5% higher than consensus. The upside surprise came mainlyfrom higher core commerce sales (+58% YoY, +36% QoQ). This could bedriven by 618 promotion season, in which Tmall/Taobao officiallyparticipated for the first time this year.
Non-GAAP EBITA reached Rmb23.5bn (+71% YoY, +55% QoQ), 17% aheadof our estimate. Adjusted EBITA margin was 47% vs. our forecast at 41%,with better than expected core commerce EBITA margin at 63%.
Non-GAAP net profit reached Rmb20.0bn (+59% YoY, +78% QoQ), 24%higher than our forecast and 26% higher than consensus thanks to bettersales and margins.
Please refer to the exhibit below for revenue and EBITA results by segment.
Recommended stock action: We expect the share price to react positively to thestrong quarterly results. We thus reiterate our OW rating on Alibaba. We willfollow up with more details after the results call at 7:30pm HK time.