Meituan's Profit Tripled on Better Chinese Consumption, Mobility — Update

By Ben Otto

Meituan's profit tripled in the third quarter, helped by a recovery in Chinese consumption and mobility that boosted delivery sales and travel segments.

The Beijing-based shopping-and-delivery platform said Tuesday that net profit nearly tripled from a year earlier to 3.59 billion yuan ($503.4 million) amid increasing use of its services in the world's second-largest economy.

Meituan, one of China's largest internet companies by market capitalization, said its number of on-demand delivery transactions rose 23%. The peak daily order volume of its food delivery service, its main source of income, hit a record 78 million orders, doubling from three years ago.

The results marked the company's third straight quarter of profit.

Quarterly revenue rose 22% from a year earlier to CNY76.47 billion, beating the consensus estimate of CNY75.89 billion in a FactSet-compiled poll of analysts.

The top line was boosted by growth in on-demand delivery transactions and a 90% rise in the gross transaction value of in-store, hotel and travel businesses "as a result of consumption recovery," Meituan said. Offsetting factors, it said, were higher incentives and a lower average order value of its food delivery and Instashopping businesses.

"We view [the] results as largely in-line and the small profit beat is within our expectations," Citi analysts said in a research note.

Shares closed 5.2% lower ahead of earnings, with analysts citing worries about potentially lower guidance for the final quarter of the year.

Write to Ben Otto at ben.otto@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 28, 2023 06:30 ET (11:30 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.