BEIJING — Huawei Technologies, one of the largest makers of telecommunications equipment in the world, bounced back from a disappointing 2011 with a 33 percent rise in net profit for 2012 and forecast stronger revenue growth, buoyed by smartphone sales and cloud computing.
Huawei’s chief financial officer, Cathy Meng, the daughter of the company’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, denied that U.S. security concerns would hamper the privately held company’s growth and said Monday that it would keep “an open mind” about a possible stock market listing.
“Cloud computing is a huge sector in the next five years,” Ms. Meng told a results presentation. “In the telecom industry, we are expecting a 5 percent increase in capital investments. Smartphone penetration is still way too low and there is a lot of room for growth. So these three areas will create a lot of opportunities for us.”
Huawei, which ranks behind only Ericsson of Sweden in telecommunications equipment, reported an unaudited net profit of 15.4 billion renminbi, or $2.5 billion, up from 11.6 billion renminbi in 2011, as new telecommunications projects and smartphones increased sales.
Revenue for the year rose 8 percent to 220.2 billion renminbi.
The results were in line with company guidance at the start of the year and came a day after ZTE, its rival, warned of a net loss of as much as 2.9 billion renminbi for 2012.
Huawei is making gains in the enterprise business, which sells networking equipment like routers and switches and has up to now been dominated by Cisco Systems.
Huawei, founded in 1987 by Mr. Ren, a former Chinese military officer, is known for aggressively gaining sales in the telecommunications equipment sector by edging out rivals like Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens Networks and ZTE.
While Huawei has increased sales and gained market share in Europe, Africa and Asia, it has also run into obstacles in countries including the United States and Australia because of national security and cyberespionage concerns.
The company has been barred from bidding for the rollout of a national broadband network in Australia, faces exclusion from the government network in Canada and is not allowed to sell telecommunications equipment to U.S. carriers.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/technology/huawei-springs-back-with-33-rise-in-net-profit.html?partner=rss&emc=rss