Alibaba Posts Slowest Sales Growth in Three Years

Alibaba Group Holding Limited posted its slowest sales growth in the first quarterly results after Daniel Zhang took the charge of the company in May. It is Alibaba’s slowest sales growth in at least three years.

The reports showed that shares of the company dropped 5.1% in New York trading, making it the lowest drop since the company initial public offering in September.

Now, the biggest challenge for Zhang is to gain investors’ confidence, especially as the Chinese economy cools after years of torrid growth. He is in charge of a company that has lost about $100 billion of its value since November, the largest destruction of shareholder value globally.

In addition, the career finance executive announced on Wednesday that the company will buy back as much as $4 billion of its shares over two years, a move to prop up its beleaguered stock.

Zhang, said, “We closely monitor the Chinese economy and consumer behaviors but as we’ve always said, we manage our business and execute our growth strategy for the long term”.

International commerce revenue climbed 19%, while mobile transactions have more than doubled since Zhang took the charge.

Zhang so far has kept himself busy after he took the charge of the company from Jonathan Lu in May. In this month itself, he signed the single largest deal in Alibaba’s history, a $4.6 billion investment in Suning Commerce Group Ltd.

On Wednesday, the company announced an agreement with Macy’s. As per the new agreement the US company will become the first American department store that will open an exclusive online store on Tmall.