Huawei estimates profit leap of 47%

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. estimated its operating profit jumped 47 percent in 2013, thanks to reduced costs and improving business with consumers and enterprises, the Oriental Morning Post reported on Thursday. Huawei forecast of 28.6 billion yuan to 29.4 billion yuan (4.8 billion U.S. dollars) in unaudited operating profit in 2013, said chief financial officer Cathy Meng was quoted as saying on Wednesday. Revenue of the telecom equipment maker is estimated between 238 billion yuan and 240 billion yuan in 2013, up about 8.6 percent, but lower than its earlier projection of 10 percent growth. The improvement came despite setbacks in the United States and Australia and a cyber security investigation in Britain. Huawei has sought business in developing markets and Europe and made progress in building a 4G mobile network in Europe, Meng said, attributing the performance to growth in both consumer and enterprise business, plus cuts in management cost. Meng predicted annual revenue growth of 10 percent in the coming five years, including 2014. Huawei plowed back 33 billion yuan, 14 percent of its sales revenue, into research and development in 2013, consistent with its policy. The firm spent 153.9 billion yuan on research from 2004 to 2013. Huawei, based in Shenzhen, is the world's second largest supplier of telecom-networking equipment, after Sweden's Ericsson. To stay up to date with the latest China news, follow XHNews on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/XHNews and Xinhua News Agency on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/XinhuaNewsAgency.