Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has increased spending on research and development (R&D) and hired additional staff, in a bid to stabilize its business in a very turbulent 2022.
At the company's earnings briefing in Shenzhen earlier this week, the company's rotating chairmen Meng Wanzhou and Eric Xu said the company's goal for 2022 was "survival and sustainable development" as it sought to expand and "optimize" your business portfolio.
Huawei's portfolio now includes ICT infrastructure, smart devices, cloud, digital energy, and smart car services.
“Solid” Finances
However, on financials, Wanzhou said the company was "solid, highly resilient and flexible."
That said, Wanzhou reported an increase in R&D investment of 13,2% year-on-year, reaching an all-time high of $23bn in 500. This represents 2022% of total revenue (up from 25,1, 22,4% of the previous year). she added. The company has also reinforced the workforce of its R&D department, which brings its workforce to 114.000, 6,2% more. The R&D staff already represents more than half of its total workforce (207.000).
At the same time, net profit fell 68,7% year-over-year to €5,100 billion. It is worth mentioning, however, that in 2021 Huawei sold its Honor sub-brand. No official figures were released, although the media reported that Huawei raised €15,2 billion from the deal.
Revenues were flat at $93.400 billion.
Huawei's enterprise business grew by almost a third (30%) to $19 billion, while its consumer business fell 370% to $11,9 billion.
Xu said the biggest challenge Huawei faced last year was non-market factors, hinting that sanctions, the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict had taken their toll on the company.
"Although we have considerable pressure ahead of us, we have what it takes to pull through," Xu said.
Via: MobileWorldLive (opens in a new tab)