Domestic sales of TDD LTE equipment and the performance of its smartphone business fueled earnings growth at Huawei in 2014.

Robert Clark, Contributing Editor, Special to Light Reading

March 31, 2015

3 Min Read
Huawei Profits Soar on 4G, Smartphone Sales

Huawei has powered to yet another sturdy profit on the back of China 4G rollouts and strong demand for its smartphones.

The Chinese vendor today announced that net profit had risen by 33%, to 27.9 billion yuan renminbi (US$4.5 billion), with sales rising by 21%, to RMB288.2 billion ($46.5 billion). It also predicted that revenues would increase at a compound annual growth rate of 10% for the "next three to five years". (See Huawei Puts Its Rivals to Shame.)

However, it is experiencing some growth pains, with a 35% hike in operating expenses far outstripping the increase in revenues. Costs accounted for 32.4% of topline sales, up from 28.8% a year ago, mostly due to higher marketing and R&D spending. Huawei's operating margin shrank from 12.2% to 11.9%.

Acting CEO Ken Hu said the company had "maintained focus" on its ICT pipe strategy and streamlined management in 2014.

In its annual report released today, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. attributed the higher earnings to growth in scale, lower forex losses and more efficient use of funds. Although the company is privately held, it issues its full financial statements each year audited by KPMG.

In its home market, Huawei increased revenues by a third thanks to thanks to China Mobile Ltd. (NYSE: CHL)'s TDD network rollout and higher smartphone sales. China accounted for 38% of Huawei's overall revenue in 2014, up from 35% in 2013.

Growth was strong across all business units. Revenues from the carrier networks division grew by 16%, increasing their share of total sales from 67% to 69%, while the consumer group lifted sales by 33% to more than $10 billion for the first time ever. At its enterprise division, Huawei flagged revenue growth of 27%. (See Huawei Reports Consumer Business Group Financials.)

The company shipped 75 million smartphones worldwide, 45% more than in 2013, with 52% of these sold outside China. Offshore markets are to be the focus for the smartphone business in 2015, said Huawei.

Want to know more about 4G LTE? Check out our dedicated 4G LTE content channel here on Light Reading.

The report reveals one area of clear advantage over rival telecom vendors, and that is Huawei's cash hoard of more than RMB78 billion ($12.6 billion), up from RMB59 billion ($9.5 billion) a year ago.

That pales beside Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s $178 billion stockpile and Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO)'s $46 billion stash, but it puts Huawei well ahead of Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) (with $3.2 billion) and Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) (with $5.4 billion).

Another notable shift for the Chinese company is on debt financing. Despite the hefty credit lines available from Chinese state banks, last year just 22% of Huawei's debt was provided by Chinese financial institutions. As recently as 2010, Chinese banks were responsible for 52% of its borrowings.

Looking ahead, Huawei said it would continue building "broader, smarter and more reliable pipes" in 2015 and beyond.

Acting CEO Hu also vowed to protect customers' data and privacy.

"No matter what the challenges might be, we must adopt every possible means to provide higher levels of assurance to ensure the secure and stable operations of customer networks," he said.

Additionally, he said the company aimed to improve flexibility and response time by delegating responsibility to field units.

— Robert Clark, contributing editor, special to Light Reading

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About the Author(s)

Robert Clark

Contributing Editor, Special to Light Reading

Robert Clark is an independent technology editor and researcher based in Hong Kong. In addition to contributing to Light Reading, he also has his own blog,  Electric Speech (http://www.electricspeech.com). 

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