Worldview: Alibaba’s Earnings Expose China’s Uneven Recovery

🇨🇳 China’s Alibaba Group Holdings sees Q4 profits tumble. The nation’s largest e-commerce group by market share has reported an 86 % decline in internet revenue, reaching 3.27 billion yuan ($452 million), in comparison with 23.52 billion yuan a 12 months earlier, and income progress of seven % within the quarter ended March. Following its cut up into six models final 12 months, the group has targeted on low-cost classes in response to cautious client spending. “We now have seen inexperienced shoots in some discretionary gadgets like attire and electronics,” stated chairman Joseph Tsai, including that the market wanted to “wait and see” on the Chinese language financial system’s restoration. “We all know Chinese language shoppers have the power to spend, however that willingness to spend displays their confidence concerning the future.” Income at its home e-commerce unit, Taobao and Tmall Group, a key distribution channel for international vogue manufacturers, elevated 4 %, in an indication that at the very least a few of Alibaba’s efforts to claw again market share from more and more aggressive opponents like Pinduoduo and Douyin are working. [Reuters, Bloomberg]

🇮🇳 Reliance Retail inks partnership with Asos for the India market. The retail arm of oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Reliance Industries has struck a take care of the British on-line vogue retailer as its unique associate throughout all on-line and offline channels within the nation. The group is a number one participant in India’s vogue business by its Reliance Retail Ventures holdings, worldwide vogue model distribution partnerships, investments in native designer manufacturers, e-commerce websites and luxurious malls. Reliance Retail Ventures director Isha Ambani stated the deal would assist convey “the heartbeat of worldwide tendencies to Indian shores [and ensure] our prospects have entry to the cutting-edge vogue kinds they crave.” [BoF Inbox]

🇬🇭 Ghana’s secondhand clothing dealers dispute waste claims. In response to a report by the Ghana Used Clothes Sellers Affiliation, lower than 5 % of the used garments imported into the nation could be thought-about waste. The affiliation’s claims are at odds with estimates continuously cited by worldwide media and NGOs that round 40 % of things coming into the nation’s Kantamanto market find yourself in landfill. “Those that have spent years utilizing and repeating false and inaccurate figures ought to apologise now for the injury they’ve completed and the hurt they’ve prompted,” stated the affiliation’s common secretary Edward Atobrah Binkley. The sentiment was echoed by UK-based Textile Recycling Affiliation chief govt Alan Wheeler who warned towards counting on “anecdotal proof or remoted case research.” [Materials Recycling World]

🇧🇷 Brazil’s leather and footwear industries hit by floods. The catastrophic floods that paralysed Rio Grande do Sul state earlier this month, leaving elements of its capital Porto Alegre submerged, have destroyed or broken factories together with Calçados Beira-Rio within the area the place there’s a cluster of footwear and leather-based processing corporations. As of Could 16, 147 individuals have died, and 1.5 million residents have been impacted together with numerous employees within the sector. [Sourcing Journal]

🇸🇦 Saudi Fashion Commission launches production facility. The primary studio of its form in Saudi Arabia for product improvement, The Lab has been outfitted with the most recent vogue manufacturing applied sciences. “Within the coronary heart of Riyadh, the studio facilitates the manufacturing course of, enabling our designers and native manufacturers to appreciate their artistic visions,” stated fee CEO Burak Cakmak. Individually, Tima Abid and Sara Altwaim had been among the many native designers displaying swimwear and resort put on on the kingdom’s inaugural Purple Sea Trend Week held within the Ummahat Islands. [Saudi Gazette, The National]

🇨🇳 WeChat owner Tencent sees quarterly profit soar by 62%. The corporate behind the favored super-app, a advertising and marketing and e-commerce gross sales channel for vogue manufacturers, has reported a stronger-than-anticipated surge in internet revenue within the three months ended March. Progress was largely pushed by a rise in advert gross sales for the group’s video platform that gained traction towards rival ByteDance, the proprietor of TikTok and Douyin. Income rose 6% to 159.5 billion yuan ($22 billion), in contrast with the 158.8 billion yuan common estimate. [Bloomberg, Financial Times]

🇨🇳 Burberry’s quarterly sales to Chinese consumers decline 12%. General gross sales on the British luxurious model additionally fell 12 % within the first three months of 2024. “Spending by Chinese language vacationers at our shops in London is lower than half of what it was in comparison with the pre-pandemic, whereas it’s greater than tripled in Paris,” stated CEO Jonathan Akeroyd. “We’ve seen a major discount in site visitors into a lot of the malls [in China] that we’re working with. I don’t suppose that is unique to us.” [BoF, CNN, Financial Times]

🇮🇳 India’s Safari Industries posts 13.4% profit increase in Q4. The corporate behind the Safari baggage and equipment model has reported consolidated internet revenue of 43.19 crore rupees ($5.1 million) within the quarter ended March 2024, towards 38.08 crore rupees in the identical interval within the earlier 12 months. [Economic Times]

🇨🇳 Chanel plans to restage its cruise show in Hong Kong. The French luxurious model will repeat the 2025 cruise present that it offered in Marseille this month in Hong Kong on Nov. 5. If it goes forward, the occasion will observe a cancelled repeat displaying of the model’s 2019 cruise present resulting from pro-democracy protests. [South China Morning Post]

🇮🇳 Traditional Indian fashion brand TCNS Clothing reports loss. The corporate, which was acquired by Aditya Birla Trend and Retail Ltd final 12 months, has posted a internet lack of 63.60 crore rupees ($7.6 million) within the quarter ended March 2024, towards a lack of 28.12 crore rupees throughout the identical interval final 12 months. The corporate’s portfolio contains manufacturers W, Aurelia, Wishful, Folksong and Elleven, [Economic Times]

🇨🇳 China’s social networks remove content that ‘flaunts wealth’. Weibo, WeChat proprietor Tencent, Douyin and Xiaohongshu are among the many Chinese language social media corporations to renew the crackdown that has been ongoing intermittently since 2016 as a part of a wider marketing campaign sanctioned by the Chinese language authorities to “purify the web cultural surroundings.” Weibo stated it had been rooting out “undesirable value-orientated content material,” together with content material “displaying off wealth and worshipping cash”. [The Guardian]

🇮🇳 Indian cosmetics brand Colorbar plans to go public. Samir Modi, the managing director of dad or mum firm Modi Enterprises, which owns and operates Colorbar, 24Seven and Modicare manufacturers, has stated that he’s making ready to undertake an IPO of the most important model within the portfolio within the subsequent three years, following a global growth subsequent 12 months. [Economic Times]

🇨🇳 Q1 revenue down 7.5% at China’s Pou Sheng International. The Hong Kong-listed multi-brand sportswear retail large that trades as YYsports within the mainland has reported unaudited income of 5.40 billion yuan ($746.4 million) within the first quarter of fiscal 2024, down from 5.83 billion yuan 12 months over 12 months. [Fibre2Fashion]

🇯🇵 Japan’s sportswear giant Asics reports Q1 sales surge. The sneaker and athletic put on maker has posted a 14.3 % enhance in internet gross sales within the first quarter of fiscal 2024, reaching 174.1 billion yen ($1.1 billion). Working revenue in the course of the interval soared 52.9 %, amounting to 33.812 billion yen. [Fibre2Fashion]

🇨🇱 Chilean retailer Ripley reports 6.5% revenue increase in Q1. The Santiago-based division retailer and mall operator recorded gross sales of 460.987 billion Chilean pesos ($517 million), boosted by the opening of a number of purchasing centres in Peru, and losses of two.480 billion pesos ($2.78 million), reflecting an 87 % enchancment from the identical interval within the earlier 12 months. [Graciela Martin for BoF, Modaes]

🇮🇳 India’s Cantabil Retail posts 9% profit rise in Q1. The New Delhi-based firm producing and retailing its namesake vogue model has reported internet revenue of 18.3 crore rupees ($2.2 million) within the quarter ended March 2024. To additional progress, the agency with over 500 monobrand shops nationwide raised capital price 50.4 crore rupees ($6 million) in the course of the interval, in response to MD Vijay Bansal. [Economic Times]

🇨🇳 Chinese designer brand Calvin Luo to shutter. The Chongqing-born, Shenzhen-raised designer who studied at Parson’s in New York has introduced that his Calvinluo model will steadily stop working from the primary quarter of 2025. Established in 2014, the model has bought to dozens of outlets globally and established a number of monobrand shops throughout the nation. [Jing Daily]

🇪🇬 Egyptian investor Rachid Mohamed Rachid launches brand. The Italy-based entrepreneur behind Swiss-based Alsara Funding Group, whose subsidiary Bidayat has a stake in manufacturers like Okhtein, Khrisjoy and Azza Fahmy, has appointed his daughter Salma Rachid to design the brand new luxurious label referred to as Retori. [Milano Finanza]

🇮🇳 Jimmy Choo taps Indian princess Gauravi Kumari. The London luxurious manufacturers has partnered with the member of the Jaipur royal household, in a model ambassadorship deal that extends to modelling in campaigns. [BoF Inbox]

🇨🇳 Rolex names Chinese director Jia Zhangke as ambassador. The Swiss luxurious watch model tapped the award-winning movie director behind films like “Nonetheless Life” and “A Contact of Sin” on the Cannes Movie Competition the place he premiered his new movie “Caught by the Tides.” [Jing Daily]

🇦🇺 R.M.Williams designs Australian Paralympic team uniforms. The Australian bush clothes and footwear model has unveiled the gathering with accessible options that shall be worn by the nationwide group at this 12 months’s Paris video games. [Ragtrader]

🇨🇳 Piaget names Chinese actress Tong Yao as ambassador. The Swiss luxurious jewelry and watch model has partnered with the award-winning actress to endorse merchandise for the China market. [Jing Daily]