Vipshop Holdings Q1 Profit Surges - Update

(RTTNews) - Chinese online discount retailer Vipshop Holdings Ltd (VIPS), Wednesday reported a surge in profit for the first quarter, as revenues doubled reflecting increase in customers and orders. Shares of the company rose about five percent in after-hours trade on the Nasdaq, following the news.

Guangzhou, China-based Vipshop's first-quarter profit rose to 367.5 million yuan or 0.61 yuan per ADS from last year's profit of 163.2 million yuan or 0.27 yuan per ADS last year.

On a US dollar basis, net income for the quarter was $59.3 million or $0.50 per ADS.

Adjusted earnings for the quarter rose to 0.80 yuan per ADS from 0.39 per ADS last year. Adjusted earnings, on a US dollar basis, were $0.13 per ADS. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.10 per ADS for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenues for the first quarter surged to 8.61 billion yuan from from 4.31 billion yuan last year. On a US dollar basis, revenues were $1.39 billion. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.29 billion for the quarter.

Revenue growth was driven by an increase in number of active customers, improved orders, as well as the contribution from the mobile platform. Number of active customers increased 75 percent to 12.9 million, while total orders rose 90.0 percent to 38.5 million.

CEO Eric Shen said, "We are very pleased with our robust first quarter 2015 financial and operational results, which were largely driven by our improved brand recognition among customers, smooth execution of our mobile initiatives, continued operational improvements as well as further enhanced shopping experience, as evidenced by the significant year-over-year growth in total repeat customers."

Gross margins for the quarter remained stable at 24.9 percent, as compared with the prior year period.

Looking forward to the second quarter, the company expects revenues of 8.7 billion to 8.9 billion yuan.

VIPS closed Wednesday's trading at $26.66, up $0.88 or 3.41%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further gained $1.20 or 4.50% in the after-hours trading.