Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has revealed that its growth has slowed ahead of its highly-anticipated upcoming IPO, which could make it the world’s most valuable company.
Alibaba, which reportedly handles more transactions than Amazon and eBay combined, revealed that its net income in the quarter ending March 2014 climbed 32% to 5.543 billion yuan ($892.7 million).
However the company’s revenues slowed slightly in this period, climbing 38% to reach 12.031 billion yuan, compared to a 62% increase in the previous quarter.
The company’s auction site, Taobao, handled 295 billion yuan worth of transactions in the last quarter, a 32% rise in volume, whilst its Tmall service, which functions similar to Amazon, saw a 90% rise in its volume to hit 135 billion yuan. However, both these rises were again less than those seen in the previous quarter.
Following complaints from investors that some details on the business were unavailable, Alibaba also released an updated prospectus revealing the members of its controlling 27-person partnership.
This group, made up of 22 figures from Alibaba’s management (including founder Jack Ma and CEO Jonathan Lu), four executives from its Alipay business, and one executive from Alibaba’s logistics joint venture, has the exclusive right to nominate a majority of Alibaba’s nine-member board, effectively ensuring control of the company rests in the hands of insiders.
Alibaba also listed the names of the nine members which will make up its post-IPO board, which alongside Ma features outsiders including former Goldman Sachs executive J. Michael Evans and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang , who previously served on Alibaba’s board from 2005 to 2012.
Alibaba is expected to float on the New York Stock Exchange later this year, with the IPO being led by Credit Suisse.
