China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit, as the COVID-19 lockdowns drove more people to shop online for essentials.
The health crisis forced people to stay indoors and brick-and-mortar remained shut, resulting in a surge in demand for online orders.
Sales from the company's core commerce business rose nearly 19% to 93.87 billion yuan (€12.1 billion) in the fourth quarter and revenue at its cloud computing business surged about 58%.
Outlook
The e-commerce giant said it expects to generate over 650 billion yuan in revenue in fiscal 2021.
Overall revenue rose to 114.31 billion yuan (€14.7 billion) in the fourth quarter ended 31 March from about 93.50 billion yuan (€12.02 billion) a year earlier.
Analysts had expected revenue of 107.04 billion yuan (€13.76 billion), according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Excluding items, the company earned 9.20 yuan per American Depository Share (ADS). Analysts were expecting 6.10 yuan per ADS, according to Refinitiv data.
