Huawei Technologies, China’s biggest maker of telecom equipment, says on Tuesday profit grew 32.7% last year.
Huawei reported a net profit of $ 4.5 billion. Revenue increased 20.6% to $ 46.5 billion last year.
The Shenzhen-based company says sales are expected to grow by 10% for the next three to five years, as it continues to expand internationally.
The world’s second biggest telecoms equipment maker said its net profit was 27.9bn yuan ($4.5bn; £3bn), up from 21bn yuan in 2013.
China sales grew by 31.5% to 108.9 billion yuan, or 37.8% of its revenues. Sales in Europe, Middle East and Africa increased 35% to 101 billion yuan.
“Our cash flow, revenue, and profit all grew over the previous year,” said chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in a statement on Tuesday. “Moreover, our debt and financing structures have continuously improved.”
Foreign exchange gains also had a big impact on the company’s earnings, because it generates more than 60% of its revenue abroad.
In January, Chief Executive Ren Zhengfei said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the company is looking to Europe to spur growth. Ren, who founded Huawei in 1987 after retiring from the Chinese military in 1983, said Huawei had no pressure to expand into the United States, where it faces spying concerns.
The company also launched in March its very first smart watch ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It hopes to capture a slice of the high-end wearable devices market with the 1.6-inch luxury watch.
Huawei is also investing in fifth generation mobile networks, the communication architecture needed to stitch more devices to the Internet. The company has said that it would allocate at least $ 600 million to 5G research and development.
