Huawei books quickest profit growth in four years

A man looks at a Huawei mobile phone as he shops at an electronic market in Shanghai January 22, 2013.??[Photo/Agencies]

SHENZHEN/BEIJING - China's Huawei Technologies Ltd, the world's No 2 telecommunications equipment maker, reported its fastest profit growth in four years as expansion in enterprise and consumer revenue far exceeded growth in its network building division.

The unlisted company has benefited from companies investing heavily in cloud and mobile computing, while it has shipped so many mobile handsets that it became the world's third-biggest smartphone manufacturer last year.

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Shenzhen-based Huawei is now looking for revenue from Chinese mobile phone operators switching to fourth-generation networks to cushion the impact of a slowdown in network spending abroad.

In 2013, net profit rose 34.4 percent to 21 billion yuan ($3.38 billion), the company said in a statement on Monday. Operating profit was 29.1 billion yuan, compared with the company's forecast range of 28.6 billion yuan to 29.4 billion yuan.

"Thanks to the favorable global macroeconomic and industry environment, as well as the effective execution of our company strategy, Huawei basically achieved our business targets for 2013," Eric Xu, Huawei's rotating and current chief executive, said in the statement.

The company expects revenue to grow 10 percent this year, and is eyeing total sales of $70 billion by 2018, executives said at a press conference in Shenzhen on Monday.

Revenue in 2013 reached a record 239 billion yuan versus company guidance of 238 billion yuan to 240 billion yuan, as profit margins improved for the second year in a row.

Revenue growth in China, Huawei's second-largest market after Europe, the Middle East and Africa, grew 14 percent from 2012 to account for over one-third of total sales.

Revenue growth in Huawei's enterprise and consumer businesses was 32 percent and 18 percent respectively.

Huawei's carrier network business grew just 4 percent but accounted for 166.5 billion yuan, or 70 percent, of revenue.

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