On August 23rd, Alibaba Group announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it will add Hong Kong as its main listing location and will primarily list on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on August 28th, becoming a company with dual main listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.
The voluntary conversion of our company from secondary listing to primary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will take effect. After taking effect, the company will be listed on both the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, and the stock symbol "S" will be removed from the company's stock abbreviation on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's Hong Kong and Renminbi counters. This voluntary conversion to dual primary listing does not involve the issuance or financing of new shares by our company.
Several industry insiders have expressed that the market expects Alibaba to meet the conditions for inclusion in the Hong Kong Stock Connect after completing its dual major listing in Hong Kong, and it is expected to be included in the Hong Kong Stock Connect as early as September.
Alibaba has added the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as its main listing location
Regarding the recent market attention on whether Alibaba can enter the Hong Kong Stock Connect, on August 15th, at Alibaba's financial report conference, Alibaba Group's Chief Financial Officer Xu Hong stated that Alibaba is seeking a major listing conversion on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company will hold a shareholders' meeting on August 22nd, and there will be such a proposal in the shareholders' meeting. If approved by the shareholders' meeting, it is expected to complete the major listing conversion on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by the end of August 2024. As for whether to connect to the Hong Kong Stock Connect in the future, we still need to go through some procedures under different rules of each exchange. We should follow the procedures and it can be achieved, "said Xu Hong.
China International Capital Corporation (CICC) believes that considering that the company has already met other requirements for inclusion in the Hong Kong Stock Connect, if the company successfully completes the dual major listing conversion by the end of August 2024, it is still expected to catch up with the Hong Kong Stock Connect inspection day on September 5th and be included near the adjustment on September 9th in this round.
Morgan Stanley's viewpoint is similar to that of CICC. The institution stated that if the conversion to become a major listed company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is completed before the end of this month, the company's stock may join the Hong Kong Stock Connect as early as September 9th. After being included in the Hong Kong Stock Connect, in the long run, the proportion of southbound capital holdings may remain stable at over 10%, which is expected to provide significant incremental support for the company's value.
This also means that Alibaba is getting closer to accessing the Hong Kong Stock Connect. If Alibaba connects to the Hong Kong Stock Connect, it will create more convenience for mainland investors to directly invest in Alibaba.
Alibaba is currently in a "secondary listing" status on the Hong Kong stock market. Previously, Alibaba's process of seeking a major listing conversion on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange went through ups and downs. In 2019, Alibaba went public for the second time on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Subsequently, in July 2022, Alibaba announced that its board of directors had authorized the group's management to submit an application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to add Hong Kong as the main listing location. After completing the review process on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Alibaba will be listed on both the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. But in November 2022, Alibaba announced that due to the need to develop a new employee stock ownership plan, it will not complete its main listing by the end of 2022 as originally planned. It was not until May 14, 2024, that Alibaba mentioned again in its fiscal year 2024 performance report: "We have been preparing for a major listing in Hong Kong and currently expect to complete the conversion by the end of August 2024
With the expected inclusion in the Hong Kong Stock Connect and favorable performance, Alibaba has once again become a favorite among many institutions. On August 15th, according to the US SEC, Scion Asset Management, a hedge fund under Michael Burry, who is known for betting on the US real estate market in 2008, significantly increased its holdings of Alibaba in the second quarter, making it the fund's largest holding with a corresponding market value of $11.16 million, accounting for 21.26% of its portfolio.
In addition, the US stock holdings released by HHLR Advisors, a fund management platform under Hillhouse, also show that Alibaba has become its third largest holding target in the second quarter of this year, accounting for 9.55% of its total holdings, compared to only 0.23% in the previous quarter.
Achieve revenue of over 243.2 billion yuan in Q2 2024
According to the latest financial report data, Alibaba Group released its financial report for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 (second quarter of 2024), which showed that Alibaba Group achieved revenue of 243.236 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4%. Adjusted EBITA profit was 45.035 billion yuan, exceeding market expectations.
Specifically, among the six core business segments, Taotian Group's revenue was 113.373 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1%; The revenue of Cloud Intelligence Group was 26.549 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6%; Alibaba International Digital Business Group's revenue was 29.293 billion yuan, a significant increase of 32% year-on-year; Cainiao Group's revenue was 26.811 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16%; The revenue of the local living group was 16.229 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12%; The revenue of Da Culture and Entertainment Group was 5.581 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4%.
It is worth noting that in this fiscal quarter, Alibaba has invested $5.8 billion and repurchased 613 million shares of common stock, exceeding the intensity of previous quarters. According to statistics, in the past fiscal year 2024, Alibaba has invested a total of 12.5 billion US dollars in repurchases, ranking first among Chinese concept stocks in terms of repurchase scale.
During the analyst conference call after the release of the financial report, Alibaba CEO Wu Yongming once again emphasized his determination and confidence in firmly adhering to the strategic direction, consolidating the effectiveness of the transformation, and enhancing the business's commercialization capabilities.
Wu Yongming said, "Based on various internal and external information, we have seen changes in the e-commerce market share, reflecting the trend of Taobao's market share gradually stabilizing, which further verifies the effectiveness of investing in user shopping experience." He also stated that in the future, we will continue to optimize the cloud product structure, focus on competitive, sustainable gross profit, and revenue replicable public cloud products, and strengthen the synergy of cloud products in the AI era. We need to help old customers practice new AI needs on Alibaba Cloud, and enable AI native enterprises to grow and succeed on Alibaba Cloud. We are confident that Alibaba Cloud's revenue from customers outside of Alibaba Group will return to double-digit growth in the second half of the fiscal year and gradually accelerate, "said Wu Yongming.
In addition to e-commerce and cloud, Alibaba has also readjusted its business strategy for Internet technology business. This means that most businesses will prioritize improving their commercialization capabilities while maintaining product competitiveness. Most businesses will gradually achieve breakeven within one to two years and begin to contribute to the scale of profitability, "said Wu Yongming.
转播
