Ant Financial, now valued at close to $60B and one of founder Jack Ma's crown jewels, recorded a net loss in the quarter, mainly driven by having investment to compete with we chat payments
Investors welcomed the higher-than-expected revenue, sending the firm's American Depository shares up 3.7 percent to $78.60 by 1435 GMT (9:35 a.m. ET). But, not all of Alibaba's businesses looked rosy. Its online finance affiliate Ant Financial Services Group, one of founder Jack Ma's crown jewels in his e-commerce empire, recorded a net loss in the quarter. That business has spent heavily on its intense competition with WeChat Payment, one of the world's largest payments systems and owned by Alibaba arch-rival Tencent Holdings Ltd. Ant, which houses the massive Alipay online payment platform, is now valued at $60 billion and is gearing up for an IPO, despite the fact it is now losing money. Alibaba did not disclose how much Ant lost.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-alibaba-results-idUSKCN0XW0Z8
