Huawei revenue rises 20% with rising sales of higher-end smartphones

The revenue of Huawei Technologies Co's gained around 20 per cent, helped by rising sales of higher-end smartphones, Bloomberg reported.

Revenue was up at least 287 billion yuan ($46.3 billion) from 239 billion yuan in 2013, according to chief financial officer Cathy Meng at a press conference in Beijing yesterday.

Operating profit from Huawei's main business was up 18 per cent to between 33.9 billion yuan and 34.3 billion yuan. Officials of the closely-held company declined to provide more details before the upcoming release of audited financial statements.

Sales growth was led by a 32 per cent increase in consumer business due to the increasing popularity of its mid- to high-end phones, according to Meng.

The unit providing cloud computing and data projects to businesses also saw a 27-per cent increase.

''Huawei's consumer business has done a good job.'' Meng said. ''Our global brand awareness increased remarkably.''

The Shenzhen-based company was expanding its portfolio of mobile devices, business-computing products and cloud services as it worked toward a goal announced in April of achieving $70 billion in sales by 2018.

Meanwhile Reuters reported that Huawei competed with Sweden's Ericsson for the top spot in the market for communications towers and other infrastructure, even as it raced to develop 5G technology while the gradual switch to 4G networks boosted business at both players.

Huawei today said revenue at its carrier network business increased 15 per cent last year. By the end of 2014 China's three carriers alone built close to 1 million 4G towers according to some projections.

According to Meng Huawei's 2014 operating profit margin likely matched 2013's 12 per cent, and the company would continue investing 10 per cent of revenue in research and development.

In 2013 executives of the  company said it would invest $600 million in 5G research through 2017.

At the same time, the company says it will continue to pursue its multi-year expansion into smartphones and enterprise computing. Revenue in the year was up 32 per cent in Huawei's consumer devices business and 27 per cent in its enterprise division.