Alibaba and Tencent’s main business may be shopping and gaming, but their latest earnings reports show they are also giving investment managers a run for their money.
The Chinese tech duo’s substantial investment portfolios generated roughly one-third of their pre-tax income in the quarter to end-September. Tencent declared net other gains of Rmb8.8bn ($1.27bn) while Alibaba noted Rmb6.6bn ($951m) of net interest and investment income.
By comparison, Tencent made 7 per cent of its profits from investments in 2016 and 22 per cent in 2017. For Alibaba the share was 14 per cent in 2017 and 30 per cent in the year to March, though some investments may have been booked under different categories in the accounts.