ZTE predicts 43.5% rise in full-year profit for 2015

ZTE said it expects to achieve record-breaking revenue and a 43.5 per cent increase in full-year net profit for the year to end-2015.

The China-based telecoms equipment manufacturer thus joins its domestic rival Huawei in providing some positive guidance for 2015: Huawei said in December that sales revenue for its Consumer Business Group in Western Europe grew by 45 per cent year-on-year, for example.

ZTE said revenue is projected at CNY100.8 billion (€14 billion/$15.3 billion) for 2015, which is 23.8 per cent higher than in 2014. The growth is attributed to higher sales of 4G LTE networks, optical networks, smart city services and products, enterprise ICT solutions and routers. Net profit is expected to be CNY3.78 billion, according to the preliminary results.

The Chinese vendor noted that it had achieved particular success with the sale of LTE networks both in international markets and in China, although it did not reveal any figures. It also said sales of 4G smartphones increased outside China, as well as terminal products for homes, although again without revealing figures.

In terms of smartphone sales, ZTE still has some way to go before catching up with Huawei. The rival vendor recently cemented its position as the world's third-largest smartphone vendor in 2015, registering 49 per cent growth in shipments year-on-year and breaking the 100 million-unit mark for the first time after shipping 108 million units, according to China-based market research company TrendForce.

Huawei's 2015 shipments also made it China's largest vendor in this category. TrendForce noted that the company replaced domestic rival Lenovo as the global number three, and also eclipsed Xiaomi after that company fell short of its predicted shipments for the year.

In July 2015, ZTE reported it had shipped 26 million smartphones worldwide in the first half of 2015. It has previously said it was targeting a top three spot in key global markets by 2020, according to a report last year from Mobile World Live.

For more:
- see this ZTE release
- see this Mobile World Live article from July 2015

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