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170 % more profit
China’s largest internet group, which describes itself as “the world’s largest online and mobile commercial company in the world”, has had a record year. Its turnover rose from 5.5 billion dollars to 8.45 billion dollars, while profit grew an astonishing 170 % to 3.7 billion dollars.
Its two most important marketplaces managed extremely impressive numbers: Tmall.com had 81 billion dollars in sales last year (more than double of last year), while Taobao reached 189 billion dollars (+ 42 %).
These numbers were mentioned in a altered version of its IPO preparation, which will probably launch in August. The company is valued at 96.6 to 121 billion dollars, even though some analysts even aim for 200 billion dollars.
“Lowest” quarterly growth in 6 years
Despite these impressive numbers, growth is not as fast as it used to be: the January-March period ‘only’ had a 39 % turnover growth, while it was 62 % in the previous quarter. It is also the first time since 2008 that growth dropped below 40 %.
Alibaba’s margins are also under pressure: in its latest quarter (until 31 March), that dropped to 45.3 % while it was 51.3 % the year before. Analysts believe the lower margins are because the company tried to attract more mobile users, which drove up costs.
9 members in board of directors
The same document, written for the American SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), shows that Alibaba has listed “27 partners” who will be able to appoint directors. Once the IPO has passed, its board of directors will consist of 9 members. Current president and founder Jack Ma, vice-president Joseph Tsai, CEO Jonathan Lu and COO Daniel Zhang will definitely become part of that board of directors. Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s co-founder, and J. Michael Evans, former Goldman Sachs banker, will become independent directors in the next board of directors.
It remains unclear how many shares Alibaba will release on its IPO, which price range it will carry, which stock exchange will host it (NYSE or Nasdaq) and which ticker symbol it will have.
