Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba has almost tripled its profits as it prepares for a float on the US stock exchange that could value it at $200bn.

Profits surged 179.6% year-on-year to 12.44bn renminbi (£1.2bn) for the three months to June 30, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The strong performance comes on the back of Alibaba successfully monetising its mobile platform.

During the quarter mobile accounted for 32.8% of Alibaba’s gross merchandise volume, up from 24.7% in the preceding three months and a significant increase on 12.0% from the same period the previous year.

The company’s number of mobile monthly active users hit 188 million for the month ending June 30, 2014.

That was up from 163 million in the month ending March 31, 2012 and 136 million for the month ending December 31, 2013.

Alibaba, which operates online marketplace Taobao and business-to-consumer ecommerce site Tmall, is planning to float on the New York stock exchange later this year.

On the back of its strong results, analysts are predicting the company could be valued at over $200bn (£120.5bn) when it floats on the stock exchange.

 

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