Alibaba.com, the mainland's largest business-to-business e-commerce company, plans to pursue its expansion strategy despite the gloomy economic outlook.
It also announced yesterday a share buy-back of up to HK$2 billion.
'We will make the same investment as before [the crisis]. The economic downturn actually represents a good opportunity as rent becomes cheaper and staff more available,' said chief executive David Wei.
'We are also looking at several merger and acquisition targets in the domestic and overseas markets.'
The company, which raised US$1.5 billion by listing in Hong Kong last year, said it planned to buy back up to HK$2 billion worth of shares by the end of next year.
'We believe a buy-back programme is appropriate at this time and it demonstrates the directors' confidence in the fundamentals of our business,' said Mr Wei.
The firm had 6.14 billion yuan in cash at the end of September.
