Hermetic (for now) to US sanctions, Huawei displays an insolent growth

This is a blooming quarterly result that should not delight US President Donald Trump. Despite the sanctions imposed by the White House, Huawei still shows impressive financial performance. In its latest results published on Wednesday, the Chinese giant reports a turnover up 24.4% to 77.9 billion euros in the first nine months of the year. The Chinese company also posted a net margin rate of 8.7% over the period.

Recall that the Trump administration, accusing the Chinese giant telecom espionage in favor of Beijing, trying for months to block the road. It prohibited him from forming business partnerships with US companies and lobbied for no country to go through the Chinese group for 5G deployments.

On this last point, the success of the American administration is very relative. Indeed, very few states have followed its call for boycotts, even though some countries have passed laws to better secure the deployment of these strategic networks. Worse, the equipment manufacturer remains the leader in the field with sixty contracts signed to date for 5G.

Smartphone sales: + 26% over one year

Donald Trump would also consider subsidizing (through credit) Huawei's European competitors, namely Swedish Ericsson and Finnish Nokia (which swallowed the French-American Alcatel-Lucent) to make them more attractive to telecom operators. . The aim would be to allow the company to align with Huawei, which offers its customers generous financing conditions (thanks to the support of Beijing banks) and longer payment terms.

On the smartphone side, Huawei's inability to use Google's services now (such as Gmail, Google Maps, Google Play, etc.) has not yet had an effect on sales. The first model without Google applications (but which embeds an open source version of Android), the Mate 30, was indeed launched on September 19 last. And since January, Huawei has sold 185 million smartphones worldwide, an increase of 26% compared to the first nine months of 2018.

The group does not specify the geographical breakdown of its sales but according to observers, the significant drop in sales in Europe (-16% in the second quarter according to Canalys) is offset by the strength of deliveries in China. In the Middle Kingdom, local actors are at the top of the list and are boosted by economic patriotism exacerbated by US sanctions.