Huawei's first-half revenue jumps 19% to $21.88 billion

Huawei Technologies Co, one of the world's biggest telecommunication equipment makers, said Monday that its revenue reached 135.8 billion yuan ($21.88 billion) in the first half of 2014, up 19 percent from last year.

The company, based in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, said in a statement posted on its website that its first-half operational profit margin would be 18.3 percent.

"Thanks to the jump of the investments in the global LTE networks, Huawei further consolidated its leadership in the mobile broadband field. In the meantime, the fast growth of the software and service sectors ensured steady improvements in the carriers' network business," Cathy Meng, CFO of Huawei, was quoted as saying in the statement.

"Meanwhile, Huawei's P7 smartphone are being sold in more than 70 countries and regions. Because of the global branding and sales of smartphones, [the company] achieved high-quality and sustainable growth in the consumer business," Meng said.

Ma Jihua, a veteran independent analyst, told the Global Times on Monday that Huawei benefited significantly from the Chinese government's support for LTE and 4G technologies.

"There will be some policy-related risks in the future. But Huawei will perform very well financially in at least the next five years, as the 4G technology will be a trend," Ma said.

The Chinese government's support for advanced telecom networks has not only benefited Huawei. Another Chinese telecom equipment maker, Shenzhen-based ZTE Corp, raised its earnings guidance for the first half of 2014, citing reasons such as its global expansion and revenue from new contracts to build China's next-generation telecom network, Reuters reported on July 14.

ZTE said it expected first-half net profit of between 1 billion yuan and 1.15 billion yuan, having previously forecast between 800 million and 1 billion, Reuters reported.

Huawei's performance in the first half of this year beat that of its direct competitor Ericsson. The Swedish firm said Friday that its net sales for the first half fell 4.7 percent to 102.4 billion kronor ($15 billion) in the first half from the same time last year, and its operating margin was 6.5 percent.