China’s second-largest eCommerce firm JD.com says its third-quarter revenue grew 38 per cent from a year ago.
The online shopping firm, whose shares have fallen 26.5 per cent this year against a 10.5 per cent rise for rival Alibaba Group Holding, says it aims to restructure its finance unit.
Revenue for the three months to the end of September was 60.7 billion yuan (US$8.9 billion). In August the company forecast third-quarter revenue of 59-61 billion yuan.
The company’s net loss for the quarter expanded to 807.9 million yuan from 534.9 million yuan a year earlier, and it predicts fourth-quarter revenue of 75-77.5 billion yuan, similar to this quarter’s growth rate.
Now the company plans to reorganise its JD Finance arm to make it wholly Chinese-owned, similar to Alibaba’s Ant Financial Services Group. EIN News says the move will enable it to apply for licences forbidden to foreign-invested companies.
Liu says there are also fundraising concerns. “Without a domestic structure it may become increasingly difficult to raise new capital above the previous valuation level.”
He says the company wants to move ahead as quickly as possible.
In January, JD Finance raised $1 billion from investors including Sequoia Capital China, China Harvest Investments and China Taiping Insurance, and was valued at 46.65 billion yuan.
JD Finance can list in China only after being profitable for three years.