Finance

Huawei’s profit doubled in 2023 as smartphone, autos business picked up

Published

1 year ago

April 3, 2024

Business Finance News

Huawei brought one of the largest displays to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2024.

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

BEIJING — Chinese telecommunications company Huawei said Friday its net profit for 2023 more than doubled thanks to better product offerings.

The company also attributed the profit gains to revenue growth of 9.6% year-on-year to 704.2 billion yuan ($99.18 billion). Net profit grew by 144.5% year-on-year to 87 billion yuan.

Higher quality operations and sales of some businesses contributed to profitability as well, according to Huawei.

The telecommunications company made a comeback in the smartphone market in 2023 with the quiet release of its Mate 60 Pro in China in late August. Reviews indicated the device offers download speeds associated with 5G — thanks to an advanced semiconductor chip. That’s despite U.S. restrictions since 2019 on Huawei’s ability to access high-end tech from American suppliers.

The Mate 60 Pro helped boost Huawei’s sales in China. In the fourth quarter, Huawei smartphone shipments in the country surged by 47% from a year ago, putting the company in fourth place by market share, ahead of Xiaomi, according to Canalys. Apple maintained first place with 6% year-on-year growth in shipments, the data showed.

Huawei’s revenue grew by 0.9% to 642.3 billion yuan in 2022, as the company stabilized its business in a tough year following a plunge of more than 28% in sales in 2021. Net profit in 2022 fell by 69%, the largest drop on record. The company at the time cited rising commodity prices, China’s pandemic controls and growing research and development spend.

Huawei on Friday also said its intelligent automobile solutions business saw revenue grow by 128.1% from a year ago to 4.7 billion yuan.

The company sells software and other technology to car companies. It has also partnered with an automaker for the Aito electric car brand.

Huawei said its consumer business saw revenue grow by 17.3% year-on-year to 251.5 billion yuan in 2023.

ICT remained by far Huawei’s biggest revenue driver with 362 billion yuan in revenue in 2023, up 2.3% from a year ago.

Cloud revenue grew by nearly 22% to 55.3 billion yuan.

— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.

Finance

Stocks making the biggest moves midday: WOOF, TSLA, CRCL, LULU

Published

1 day ago

June 6, 2025

Business Finance News

Finance

Swiss government proposes tough new capital rules in major blow to UBS

Published

1 day ago

June 6, 2025

Business Finance News

A sign in German that reads “part of the UBS group” in Basel on May 5, 2025.

Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images

The Swiss government on Friday proposed strict new capital rules that would require banking giant UBS to hold an additional $26 billion in core capital, following its 2023 takeover of stricken rival Credit Suisse.

The measures would also mean that UBS will need to fully capitalize its foreign units and carry out fewer share buybacks.

“The rise in the going-concern requirement needs to be met with up to USD 26 billion of CET1 capital, to allow the AT1 bond holdings to be reduced by around USD 8 billion,” the government said in a Friday statement, referring to UBS’ holding of Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bonds.

The Swiss National Bank said it supported the measures from the government as they will “significantly strengthen” UBS’ resilience.

“As well as reducing the likelihood of a large systemically important bank such as UBS getting into financial distress, this measure also increases a bank’s room for manoeuvre to stabilise itself in a crisis through its own efforts. This makes it less likely that UBS has to be bailed out by the government in the event of a crisis,” SNB said in a Friday statement.

‘Too big to fail’

UBS has been battling the specter of tighter capital rules since acquiring the country’s second-largest bank at a cut-price following years of strategic errors, mismanagement and scandals at Credit Suisse.

The shock demise of the banking giant also brought Swiss financial regulator FINMA under fire for its perceived scarce supervision of the bank and the ultimate timing of its intervention.

Swiss regulators argue that UBS must have stronger capital requirements to safeguard the national economy and financial system, given the bank’s balance topped $1.7 trillion in 2023, roughly double the projected Swiss economic output of last year. UBS insists it is not “too big to fail” and that the additional capital requirements — set to drain its cash liquidity — will impact the bank’s competitiveness.

At the heart of the standoff are pressing concerns over UBS’ ability to buffer any prospective losses at its foreign units, where it has, until now, had the duty to back 60% of capital with capital at the parent bank.

Higher capital requirements can whittle down a bank’s balance sheet and credit supply by bolstering a lender’s funding costs and choking off their willingness to lend — as well as waning their appetite for risk. For shareholders, of note will be the potential impact on discretionary funds available for distribution, including dividends, share buybacks and bonus payments.

“While winding down Credit Suisse’s legacy businesses should free up capital and reduce costs for UBS, much of these gains could be absorbed by stricter regulatory demands,” Johann Scholtz, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said in a note preceding the FINMA announcement.

“Such measures may place UBS’s capital requirements well above those faced by rivals in the United States, putting pressure on returns and reducing prospects for narrowing its long-term valuation gap. Even its long-standing premium rating relative to the European banking sector has recently evaporated.”