New CEO takes charge as JD.com surprises with 6.2b yuan profit

Staff reporter and Reuters

JD.com (9618) swung to a net profit of 6.26 billion yuan (HK$7.07 billion) in the first quarter, beating market expectations, while the e-commerce giant said its current chief financial officer Sandy Xu Ran has been appointed as the chief executive officer to succeed Xu Lei.

In comparison, the Beijing-based firm recorded a net loss of 2.99 billion yuan for the same period last year.

The adjusted net profit, which is a popular measure for tech firms, surged 88 percent to 7.6 billion yuan in the first three months.

Revenue for the quarter rose 1.4 percent to 242.96 billion yuan, also beating Wall Street estimates, driven by resilient demand for its e-commerce platform from online shoppers. Analysts had averagely predicted a first-quarter revenue of 239.42 billion yuan for JD, according to Refinitiv data.

US-listed shares of JD rose nearly 4 percent in trading before the bell.

"JD saw strong growth in profitability in the first quarter as we continued to streamline our operations, optimize our product portfolio and expand our service offerings," said chief executive Xu.

Xu, who has been officially CEO for a year, will retire in June "due to personal reasons," the company said in a statement.

He will begin the process of handing the CEO role over to Sandy Xu immediately, according to the company.

Meanwhile, Ian Shan Su, the current finance chief of its logistics unit JD Logistics (2618), will take over as CFO.

This came as JD Logistics narrowed its adjusted first-quarter loss by 18.4 percent year-on-year to 712.3 million yuan. Revenue for the period jumped 34 percent to 36.73 billion yuan.

The unit announced that Wu Hao has been appointed as CFO to succeed Shan.

Also, its healthcare unit JD Health (6618) reported a 54 percent rise in revenue to 13.95 billion yuan in the first quarter from a year ago. Its adjusted operating income more than doubled to 1.16 billion yuan during the period.

The unit also revealed changes in management, with Deng Hui being appointed as CFO to succeed Cao Dong, who has resigned as he will assume a new role in the parent JD, the statement said.