阿里巴巴在IPO前公布季度收入猛增46%

    首发上市前的阿里巴巴集团(Alibaba Group Holding Ltd)财源滚滚。

    中国最大的电子商务企业阿里巴巴在提交给美国证监会（SEC）的公告中称，得益于移动平台销售额强劲增长，今年第二季度公司实现收入25.4亿美元，同比增长46%。移动业务占阿里巴巴当季总交易额的33%，高于第一季度的27%。雅虎（Yahoo）持有阿里巴巴22.4%的股份。

    阿里巴巴实现季度净利润19.9亿美元，增长逾两倍；每股收益0.84美元；自由现金流17.1亿美元。

    不过，阿里巴巴也表示增长有代价：该公司现已消耗了80亿美元信贷额度，而且又已经安排了30亿美元的循环信贷额度，不过后者尚未投入使用。

    这应该是阿里巴巴在上市前最后一次公布业绩。该公司初步定于9月份首发，从而可能成为美国历史上规模最大的科技公司IPO。媒体报道称，阿里巴巴最快可能会在本周公布询价区间。

    分析师预计的最大首发规模为200亿美元，这将完全抵消（并超过）该公司的负债。但阿里巴巴表示，它将把IPO所得资金用于“公司一般运营”，而不是专门偿还债务，同时也不会把这些资金转移到中国大陆。

    据报道，阿里巴巴的美国电子商务平台最近启动，欲和亚马逊（Amazon）一较高下。阿里巴巴还迅速进行了一系列收购，以便实现业务多元化，不过有些收购标的出现了问题。8月初，阿里巴巴称，公司发现所收购的影视公司文化中国存在会计违规行为。文化中国现已更名为阿里巴巴影业。

    阿里巴巴递交给SEC的IPO申请花大量笔墨描述了中国电子商务市场的增长潜力。阿里巴巴称，目前它有2.79亿名活跃买家，比上年同期提高了9%，单个买家每年平均下单数量为52笔。

    这只是中国电子商务市场潜力的冰山一角。阿里巴巴指出，中国有13.5亿人，其中互联网用户6.18亿，而在线购物目前只占中国消费总额的8%。（财富中文网）

    译者：Charlie

    The money keeps pouring in to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ahead of its initial public offering.

    China’s largest e-commerce company, in which Yahoo has a 22.4% stake, said in an SEC filing that its revenue rose 46% on the year in the second quarter of this year to $2.54 billion, thanks to strong growth in sales through mobile platforms. Mobile devices accounted for 33% of overall gross merchandise value in the quarter, up from 27% in the first quarter.

    Net income more than tripled to $1.99 billion, or 84 cents a share, while free cash flow was $1.71 billion.

    However, the company also said is growth had come at a price: it has now fully drawn down an $8 billion credit facility and has arranged another $3 billion revolving credit line that it hasn’t yet used.

    The results are likely to be the last Alibaba disclosed ahead of its IPO, which is tentatively scheduled for September and is likely to be the largest ever by a tech company. A target price range for the shares may be published as early as next week, according to media reports.

    Analysts have touted an IPO size of up to $20 billion, which would wipe out the company’s debt (and more) at a stroke. But the company said it intends to use the proceeds of the share sale for “general corporate purposes”, rather than specifically to pay down debt, and said it wouldn’t transfer the funds to mainland China.

    As reported, the company has recently launched an e-commerce platform in the U.S., with a view to ultimately taking on Amazon.com Inc. It has also made a flurry of acquisitions to diversify its business, but has run into problems with some of them. It said earlier in August that it had discovered accounting irregularities at film production company ChinaVision, now renamed Alibaba Pictures.

    Alibaba’s filing plays heavily to the growth potential of the Chinese e-commerce market. The company said it now has 279 million active buyers, up 9% on the year, placing an average of 52 orders a year.

    That is still only a fraction of the Chinese market’s overall potential. The company reckons that China has 618 million internet users out of a total population of 1.35 billion, while online shopping still only accounts for 8% of total Chinese consumption.