Coupang beats expectations with $75.5 million quarterly loss

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Coupang beats expectations with $75.5 million quarterly loss

  
Coupang delivery trucks are parked in Seoul. [NEWS1]

Coupang delivery trucks are parked in Seoul. [NEWS1]

 
Coupang reported a net loss of $75.5 million in the second quarter, compared to a loss of $518.6 million in the same quarter the previous year.
 
On a per share basis, the loss was $0.04, beating the Wall Street consensus of a $0.11 loss.
 
Revenue was $5.04 billion, up 12 percent on year but lower than analyst expectations of $5.18 billion. Compared to the previous quarter, the figure fell 1.5 percent, with sales growth continuing to flatten.
 
"The rate of growth improvement will be a bit uneven quarter-to-quarter due to sequencing and optimization efforts, investments and seasonality impacts," said Gaurav Anand, CFO of Coupang. "Forecasting revenue growth for this year amid the reopening of markets after Covid-19 remains challenging."
 
"But we are confident that we will continue the trend of growing significantly faster than the overall Korean e-commerce segment."
 
The company said its profits improved due to improving efficiency through technology and automation, also helped by economies of scale created by using the same logistics facility for both Coupang deliveries and its Rocket Fresh grocery deliveries.
 
The company reported an operating loss of $67 million, compared to an operating loss of $514.9 million the previous year.
 
It logged an adjusted Ebitda — which factors out interest, income tax, depreciation, amortization and other expenses — of $66.2 million, compared to a negative $122 million Ebitda the same quarter the previous year.
 
Coupang is forecasting positive Ebitda for full-year 2022.
 
The reported sales of $180.6 million for its developing offerings — which include Coupang Eats, Coupang Play, fintech and advertising — up 65 percent on year. CEO Bom Kim said growth slowed on quarter due to its Coupang Eats business, with the food delivery business slowing down in Korea in the post-Covid-19 era.
 
"We were affected by the negative 11 percent quarter-on-quarter slow down in the overall food delivery sector," said Kim, according to conference call notes on the company website. "But we saw significant improvement in Eats profitability in Q2 due to our focus on improving operational efficiencies this quarter."  
 
Coupang had 17.9 million active customers in the second quarter, up 5 percent on year. Compared to the first quarter, the figure fell 1.25 percent.
 
Net revenue per active customer was $282, up 7 percent on year. The figure fell on a on-quarter basis, edging down 0.35 percent.
 
The company said net revenue has room to grow as a large portion of its customers didn't use its Rocket Fresh deliveries.
 
In after-hours trading after the earnings release, Coupang shares rose 3.29 percent to $20.41. Coupang shares were sold in an initial public offering last year at $35.00 and opened on Mar. 11 at $63.50.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]
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