JD.com loses 3b yuan in Q1

Chinese e-commerce group JD.com (9618) suffered a net loss of 3 billion yuan (HK$3.5 billion) in the first quarter this year but logged better-than-expected 18 percent revenue growth as more people shopped on its platform following lockdowns in mainland China to fight a fresh Covid outbreak.

The net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders stood at 2.99 billion yuan, compared with a profit of 3.62 billion yuan a year earlier. The adjusted net profit for the first quarter was 4 billion yuan, the same as last year, but still beating analysts' expectations.

Sales climbed to 239.7 billion yuan in January-March period, beating the 236.7 billion yuan average of analyst forecasts. JD's stock surged more than 8 percent in pre-market trading in New York. The company also traded 7.4 percent higher ahead of its earnings in Hong Kong yesterday.

Annual active customer accounts increased by 16.2 percent to 580.5 million in the twelve months ended March 31 this year, the firm said.

This came as JD Logistics (2618) the tech giant's logistics unit, narrowed its net loss to 1.4 billion yuan in the first three months. That compared with a loss of 11 billion yuan in the same period of 2021.

The adjusted loss also narrowed by 41.6 percent to 797 million yuan in the first quarter while revenue for the same period rose 22 percent year-on-year to 27.3 billion yuan.

Separately, TikTok and its domestic version Douyin, which has been reportedly looking to list in Hong Kong, have generated nearly US$300 million (HK$2.34 billion) in revenue in April, up 1.9 times year-on-year, according to data analysis company Sensor Tower.