Huawei rules out global acquisitions

LONDON - China’s Huawei is not planning acquisitions to expand its telecommunication network equipment and mobile phone businesses, preferring a go-it-alone strategy centered on R&D firepower and building a consumer brand, the group’s co-chief executive said.

Speaking in London on Tuesday, Eric Xu, who now holds the rotating CEO job, also said Huawei would have no problem hitting its target for 10 percent revenue growth this year and next on strong demand from global telecom carriers and consumers.

Shenzhen-based Huawei earned roughly 73 percent of its 220.2 billion yuan ($36.1 billion) sales last year on network equipment for telecom operators, while 22 percent came from mobile phones and other consumer devices like Wi-Fi dongles.

Nearly three quarters of revenue is earned outside China, making Huawei one of the country’s first truly global companies.

“We will not do any acquisitions to support the business objectives we have for our smartphone business, rather we will take a step-by-step approach to build it,” said Xu.

As for the telecom gear unit, Xu also said no acquisitions were planned.

Huawei has expanded globally in the past decade to become the world No. 2 behind Sweden’s Ericsson, taking market share from Europe’s Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia’s NSN unit via lower prices and strong technology.

Bloomberg