China’s Meituan Dianping narrows losses, pushes forward grocery retail initiatives
- Food delivery services giant posted better-than-expected 70.1 per cent growth in first-quarter revenue to 19.2 billion yuan
Chinese food delivery services giant Meituan Dianping plans to continue its foray into China’s grocery retail sector, despite closing a number of its Ella supermarkets in the first quarter of this year, as it ratchets up competition with Alibaba Group Holding.
Beijing-based Meituan said it was “disciplined on capital allocation for our new initiatives”, according to a regulatory filing in Hong Kong on Thursday when it posted better-than-expected earnings for the quarter ended March.
“With our clear scale and structural advantages in user base, merchant base and delivery network through long-term investments, we have the capability and flexibility to both strengthen our market position and improve our financial performance,” said company co-founder, chairman and chief executive Wang Xing in a statement released after the close of trading.
Meituan narrowed its net loss in the first quarter to 1.4 billion yuan (US$203 million), compared with a 21 billion yuan loss in the same period a year ago, on the back of strong revenue growth across all its major business segments. That was ahead of the 2.7 billion yuan loss projected by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
