Chinese e-commerce platform JD.com said it expects net revenues for the first quarter of 2020 to grow at least 10% year-on-year, while adding that this figure is subject to change in light of coronavirus-related uncertainties in the economy, according to its fourth quarter earnings release on Monday.
JD.com reported net revenues of RMB 170.7 billion (USD 24.5 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2019, beating the market consensus of RMB 167 billion and representing a 26.6% increase from the same period in 2018. Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders for the fourth quarter of 2019 was RMB 3.6 billion (USD 0.5 billion), compared to net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders of RMB 4.8 billion for the same period last year.
“JD will not be significantly impacted by the epidemic,” said analyst Ming Lu of Aequitas Research, who published his insights on Smartkarma on February 25.
He reasoned that while the outbreak has people putting off purchases of durable consumer goods, it is also pushing them to buy more fast-moving consumer goods via e-commerce platforms to minimize person-to-person contact while shopping.
Lu added that JD.com, which is not only a platform for third-party retailers, but also a direct retailer itself, has raised the prices of many goods, indicating an increase in demand. He also noted that the State Post Bureau announced that JD’s logistics services have recovered to their full pre-Chinese New Year capacity despite the outbreak.
Alibaba, which disclosed its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2019 earlier, told analysts attending the earnings call that they estimated revenue growth would decrease during the March quarter as a result of the coronavirus, adding that it was too early to offer guidance for the quarter.