(Bloomberg) -- JD.com Inc. reported higher sales last quarter after shoppers kept spending at China’s second-largest online retailer despite an economic downturn.
Sales rose 11% from a year earlier to 243.5 billion yuan ($34.2 billion) in the quarter ending in September, the company said in a statement on Friday. That compared to the average forecast of 243.1 billion yuan from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The Beijing-based company logged net income of 6 billion yuan, improving on a 2.8 billion yuan loss the previous year with cost-cutting efforts.
JD and larger rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. have been grappling with a drop in spending due to China’s adherence to a Covid-Zero policy that’s stifled economic activity. Alibaba reported a surprise quarterly loss, as stalled revenue growth fell short of covering for writedowns on tech investments.
Founded by billionaire Richard Liu, JD has largely avoided a direct hit from Beijing’s crackdown on the country’s biggest internet companies. It’s seen as a beneficiary of regulators’ condemnation of rivals’ free-wheeling growth-at-all-costs spending.
“While macro headwinds remain, we believe JD is well positioned to capture re-accelerated growth when the economy rebounds,” Citigroup analysts led by Alicia Yap said in a note to investors ahead of the earnings announcement.
Chinese tech shares have rallied recently, as the Communist Party relaxed some Covid restrictions and Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden had their first sit-down meeting at the Group of 20 summit in Bali this week. JD shares listed in Hong Kong soared about 50% this month. They remain down about 20% this year.
--With assistance from Charlotte Yang.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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