Alibaba shares tank after margins decline, market value dips $30 billion

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd shares fell the most in 18 months and cut its market valuation by about $30 billion after investments in brick-and-mortar assets and digital media squeezed profit margins in the December quarter.
The Chinese e-commerce giant reported revenue that topped analyst estimates and raised its growth forecast for the 12 months ending in March to 55 to 56 percent. But operating margin shrank to 31 percent in the last quarter from 39 percent a year earlier.

Shares fell 5.9 percent in New York trading, the sharpest decline since June 2016.
Alibaba will also buy 33 percent of Ant Financial, helping to clear the way for an initial public offering of the Chinese payments giant. While no cash is changing hands, Ant Financial will end royalty payments to Alibaba that were worth more than $300 million last fiscal year.