Coupang 1Q Profit Drops, Hit by Farfetch Acquisition

By Sabela Ojea

Coupang reported a drop in profit in the latest quarter after including the losses incurred at Farfetch, the luxury goods platform it acquired for $500 million.

Based in Seattle, Coupang operates an online shopping business in Korea, and on Tuesday posted a first-quarter net profit attributable to shareholders of $5 million, or 0 cents a share, compared with $91 million, or 5 cents a share, for the same period a year earlier. Analysts polled by FactSet had forecast earnings per share of 5 cents.

Operating cost and expenses rose 24% to $7.07 billion.

Revenue climbed 23% to $7.11 billion, missing the $6.95 billion expected by analysts. Excluding Farfetch, revenue rose 18%.

Coupang ended the quarter with a product commerce active customer base of 21.5 million, slightly up from 21 million as of Dec. 31. Net revenue per product commerce did, however, decline 1%.

Since Farfetch results will be added to Coupang's developing offerings segment, the company expects to close the year with adjusted Ebitda losses for developing offerings of around $750 million, up about $100 million.

Farfetch is expected to achieve close to a positive adjusted Ebitda on a run-rate basis by the end of 2024, Coupang added.

Write to Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com; @sabelaojeaguix

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 07, 2024 16:49 ET (20:49 GMT)

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