Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. has (at last) issued its 2007 annual report, confirming its position as the fifth biggest telecom equipment vendor in the world with revenues of $12.56 billion for last year, up 48 percent from 2006.
And we're talking actual revenues here: The Chinese vendor often uses the value of signed contracts to publicly report its financial growth -- for 2007 it has previously announced "contract sales" of $16 billion -- but in its annual report it discloses its financials as audited by KPMG International "in accordance with IFRSs (International Financial Reporting Standards)."
And those 2007 revenues are higher than expected.
Well, higher than Light Reading expected, anyway.
Earlier this year we took an average ratio of revenues to contract sales from Huawei's previous annual reports -- it came to 73.4 percent -- and, using that ratio, estimated the firm's 2007 revenues would be about $11.7 billion. (See Huawei Sets Bumper Sales Target.)
But Huawei has beaten that average –- its 2007 revenues are equivalent to 78.5 percent of reported contract sales (see Table 1).
Table 1: Huawei's Contract Sales and revenues, 2002-2007
Year
Reported value of contract sales
Reported audited revenues
Audited revenues as % of reported contract sales
2007
$16 billion
$12.6 billion
78.5%
2006
$11 billion
$8.5 billion
77%
2005
$8.2 billion
$6 billion
73%
2004
$5.6 billion
$3.8 billion
68%
2003
$3.8 billion
$2.7 billion
71%
2002
$2.7 billion
$2.1 billion
78%
Source: Huawei
Its reported 2007 revenues put it well ahead of Nortel Networks Ltd. to claim fifth spot in our updated global table of telecom equipment vendors (see Table 2).
Table 2: How Huawei Stacks Up Against Major Rivals
2007 revenues in US$*
2007 revenues in local currency
Cisco
$34.9 billion**
Not applicable
Ericsson
$31.3 billion
187.8 billion Swedish kroner
Alcatel-Lucent
$27.9 billion
€17.8 billion
Nokia Siemens Networks
$21 billion***
€13.4 billion
Huawei
$12.6 billion
CNY91.7 billion
Nortel
$10.95 billion
Not applicable
* Converted at exchange rates sourced on July 8 2008
** Fiscal 2007 ending July 28 2007
*** Full year includes three quarters of Nokia Siemens Networks (Q2-Q4) revenues and one quarter (Q1) of Nokia infrastructure revenues only
Source: Company reports
For 2007, Huawei's gross margin was 33.9 percent (down from 36.2 percent in 2006); its operating margin was 7 percent (unchanged from 2006) for an operating profit of $879 million; and its net income was $674 million, 32 percent up from 2006's profit of $512 million (see Table 3).
Table 3: Huawei Financial Performance (in US$ millions), 2001-2007
Years ended 31 December
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001*
Revenue
12,560
8,504
5,982
3,827
2,694
2,128
2,290
Net income
674
512
681
624
384
108
258
Cash flows from operations
843
743
708
396
385
204
255
Operating profit margin
7%
7%
14%
18%
19%
17%
24%
*Excluding discontinued operations
Source: Huawei
So, while Huawei's revenues and the value of its contract awards are growing at a rapid pace, its operating margin is static (at 7 percent), its gross profit is down, and its net income is increasing at a slower pace than its revenues.
Here are some other statistics of note from Huawei's 2007 report:
Huawei ended 2007 with nearly $1.7 billion in "cash and cash equivalents," up from just more than $1 billion a year earlier.
It counts 35 of the world's Top 50 carriers as its customers.
35,000 Huawei staff are engaged in research and development -- that's 43 percent of the company's total global headcount of more than 81,000. The company says it invested 10 percent of its revenues ($1.26 billion) in R&D, with facilities in China, India, Europe, and the U.S.
By December 2007, Huawei had filed 26,880 patent applications since it began operations.
Of its $16 billion of contract sales in 2007, 72 percent came from non-domestic, or international, markets. Huawei claims that its growth (in terms of contract sales) in "developed markets such as Europe, the United States, and Japan" in 2007 was more than 150 percent.
Like other major vendors, Huawei is now aggressively targeting the professional services market. It has seven managed services centers around the world and claims to have signed 34 managed services contracts during 2007, with Vodafone, China Mobile Communications Corp. , Etisalat , MTN Group Ltd. , and Warid Telecom Pvt. Ltd. among those customers. It's a red-hot market, leading some to claim that market share is being gained from "silly pricing." (See Nokia Siemens CEO Slams 'Silly Pricing'.)
Huawei says it has deployed 100,000 "green" mobile base stations that, to date, have saved the equivalent of 170,000 tons of coal in power consumption.
It claims leadership in the MSAN (multiservice access node) market and top spot in the IP DSLAM market in the second half of 2007. (See Huawei Rivals AlcaLu for DSL Crown.)
Now, of course, the focus is on 2008. Huawei estimates its contract sales total will be as high as $23 billion this year, up nearly 44 percent compared with 2007. And with China set to upgrade its mobile networks to 3G, and other emerging markets turning to the Chinese vendor for goods, services, and support, Huawei looks set for a few more bumper years as well. (See Huawei Pumps Up Its APAC Biz, China to Get 3G – At Last!, and Reliance Borrows $750M for Huawei Gear.)
>>I think this means that even if they _only_ spent R&D funds on employees they are averaging $36,000 per person.
For NA or UK, just add $100,000 per engineer for R&D cost. That is very difficult to compete for any local company even if they have off-shore outfits in India. No wonder, they have become #5 from unknown.
Do you hav similar numbers for local telecom vendors?
The 45% of the HSPA/UMTS and 44% of all CDMA deals goes far to explain the flat revenue performance at Western vendors like ALU, MOT, NSM and ERIC. I was wondering how service providers were going to service growing cell phone usage without investing in infrastructure. Perhaps it is all from Huawei.
However, even with Huawei, I would expect dropped calls to grow in the coming years as service providers sweat their 3G assets as they wait (and wait and wait) on 4G to arrive.
http://www.eetchina.com/SITE/05SALARY_EN.PDF slightly dated Chinese salary survey, Dec 05 shows Chinese engineers average $7,700 in US dollars when converted from RMB's, work an average of 47 hours and collect a $1,700 average annual bonus. So $36K spent per headcount in R&D would sound reasonable. Even with a 20% yoy salary increase their salary doesn't clear $12K annually
Yes they are scary for any NA or Euopean company with local R&D. If the following math is right there is still a huge delta in R&D expenses.
They spent 1.26B in R&D and have 35,000 people in R&D.
I think this means that even if they _only_ spent R&D funds on employees they are averaging $36,000 per person. They probably spent some % on things in R&D besides people.
This seems to be close to what San Jose companies pay for medical coverage or medical coverage and office space/power - let alone the salary....
"For 2007, Huawei's gross margin was 33.9 percent (up from 36.2 percent in 2006)"
This is down, not up; unless you are a politician. :-)
Huawei is a scary scary company though. When/if they figure out the NA market, there is going to be quite the shake out in the telecom equipment space.
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