Beijing: Alibaba saw sales and profits jump over the last three months of 2020 despite a Beijing crackdown on the Chinese e-commerce giant.
In November, the Chinese administration had struck down the Hong Kong IPO of Alibaba’s online payment subsidiary Ant Group.
A month later, regulators began a probe into Alibaba’s business practices and the group’s founder Jack Ma disappeared until mid-January.
On Tuesday, Alibaba, based in the eastern city of Hangzhou, said it is “cooperating” with a probe by the state administration for market regulation.
In the third quarter of its fiscal year, the Wall Street-listed Alibaba posted a 52% year-on-year jump in profit to 79 billion yuan ($12.2 billion).
This came following a steep 60% fall in the previous quarter.
Sales in October-December rose 37% year-on-year to 221.1 billion yuan — beating analysts polled by financial agency Bloomberg who saw a 33% jump.
Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang said: “Thanks to the rapid recovery of China’s economy, Alibaba had another very healthy quarter.”
China is the only major world economy to have emerged from a covid-hit 2020 with positive growth.
The rate of expansion, at 2.3% for the year, is China’s slowest in 44 years.
Alibaba noted the setbacks to its online payment subsidiary Ant Group, whose IPO remains on ice.
“Ant Group’s business outlook and IPO plans are subject to great uncertainty,” the group said.
Chinese authorities have ordered Ant to change its business model and rein in its lending, insurance and wealth management services, while the anti-monopoly probe against Alibaba continues.
Alibaba’s problems began after an October speech by founder Jack Ma in which he criticized China’s financial system.
Ma, with a fortune estimated around $58 billion, disappeared after he was hauled in front of regulators.
A former teacher-turned-internet-entrepreneur, Ma quit as chairman of Alibaba in 2019 but has long drawn attention for his outspokenness.
The squeeze on the influential Alibaba is a sign that the Chinese authorities are ready to puncture the ambitions of big-tech firms.
Despite Ma’s brief reappearance, he was conspicuous by his absence from a list of China’s top entrepreneurs published Tuesday by a state media outlet.
China has had a history of disappearing, investigating and imprisoning tycoons who do not toe the party line.
Last year, outspoken tycoon Ren Zhiqiang was jailed for 18 years on alleged graft charges, months after penning an essay critical of the Communist Party.