With the Chinese middle class population forecast to double to over 600 million over the next 5 years, which in turn increases consumer spending, it is not difficult to see why the ‘smart’ money is investing in Alibaba, one of China’s largest companies that is likened to Amazon, eBay, Paypal and Google all rolled into one.
Alibaba was founded during the 1990’s by Jack Ma who realised at that time China lacked technology in the business world. Alibaba, now one of China’s largest companies, listed in 2014, and today is highly profitable with a market capitalisation of over US$580bn. This is about 6 times larger than Australia’s largest company CSL.
Alasdair McHugh (Product Specialist Baillie Gifford) is attracted to Alibaba due to their very strong position in ecommerce transactions in China where their market share is over 60% by gross merchandise value and likely to rise further. He also likes the fact that the original co-founder and visionary Jack Ma is still involved in the business.
According to the China Ministry of Commerce, total retail sales across China increased 8% in calendar 2019, for a total of RMB 41 trillion (AUD $9 trillion). Consumption contributed over half of China’s economic growth. Online retail sales for the year was RMB 8.5 trillion (AUD $1.87 trillion) up 19.5% from the year before. It is clear that consumption is now a major driver of economic growth in China, and online retail is an important driver of consumption growth. Alibaba’s dominant position means it is well placed to capture this growth.
The scale of the opportunity is extraordinary and underestimated by certain investors, particularly some from the west who still consider China as a risky emerging market. But McHugh suggests that those who still treat China as an emerging market are overlooking the fact that the addressable market for Chinese consumer spending is 1.3 billion people.
Illustrating this point was the recent ‘Singles Day’ held in November 2019 where another record was broken with total sales of RMB 268.4bn (approx. AUD $59.2bn). Almost 1.3 billion packages were delivered by Alibaba from ‘Singles Day’ orders and of those 960 million were delivered within one week. This is equivalent to 2.3 times the combined online sales of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US. It reflects the strength of Alibaba’s digital economy and of Chinese consumers consumption power.
Joe Lai (Portfolio Manager Platinum Asset Management) says that “mobile monthly average users on Alibaba’s retail marketplaces in China reached 824 million in December 2019, an increase of 39 million from the previous quarter”.
Beyond the ecommerce business, Alibaba operates the largest cloud computing business in China, Alibaba Cloud. Many believe that this business can ultimately become the largest division within the company despite it presently representing less than 10% of overall revenue. Revenue from Alibaba Cloud grew by 62% over the year to December 2019.
A fascinating aspect of Alibaba’s recent quarterly earnings update related to the company’s involvement in procuring and delivering 40 million units of medical supplies worth around AUD$100 million to Wuhan which has been impacted by Covid-19. This shows a company that is so much more than an online retailer.
Lai points out that “The Alibaba ecosystem keeps delivering new sources of value to shareholders. Amid the Covid-19 lock down in China, Alibaba’s new enterprise communication app, DingTalk, has achieved new prominence. Alibaba introduced a new digital health check in feature on DingTalk, which as at February 2020, had recorded more than 150 million daily health check ins.”
While currently investors are obsessing over Covid-19, Alibaba management said “17 years ago, the ecommerce business experienced tremendous growth after SARS. We believe the adversity will be followed by changes in behaviour among consumers and enterprises and bring ensuing opportunities. We have observed more and more consumers getting comfortable with taking care of their daily living needs and working requirements through digital means.”
With the huge growth in China’s middle class and online commerce in coming years, combined with Alibaba’s dominance across retail, financial and computing businesses it’s clear to see why the company is in Platinum and Baillie Gifford portfolios. Investors can of course buy Alibaba directly either on the Hong Kong or US exchange and can also gain access to it through managed global funds.
This article appeared in the Australian Financial Review during March 2020 - written by Mark Draper GEM Capital