The founder and chairman of Chinese vendor Huawei, Ren Zhengfei, has dismissed suggestions that the company should seek a listing to increase transparency.
Speaking to journalists today, Ren described the equipment maker as sufficiently transparent in…
The founder and chairman of Chinese vendor Huawei, Ren Zhengfei, has dismissed suggestions that the company should seek a listing to increase transparency.
Speaking to journalists today, Ren described the equipment maker as sufficiently transparent in its existing structure.
The Financial Times quoted the chairman describing public shareholders as “greedy”, while Huawei’s current owners were not.
Huawei has been criticised in the past for a lack of clarity about its ownership, but it maintains that the vast majority of its owners are its employees.
The Chinese company states on its website that “Huawei Investment & Holding Co is a private company wholly owned by its employees. Shareholders of Huawei are the Union of Huawei Investment & Holding Co and Mr. Ren Zhengfei. The Union contributed 98.82% of the company’s total share capital.”
In late 2012, it had been suggested that Huawei was considering an IPO in order to tap into the US market. The Asian giant had reportedly been seeking advice from investment banks on how and where to float, in order to make itself more transparent and more likely to win big contracts in the US.
Huawei has effectively been shut out of the US and Australia amid concerns of national security, because of alleged links between the company and the Chinese government. The vendor has always denied these allegations.
Since then, Huawei has said it is no longer as interested as it used to be in the US market after years of trying to convince Washington legislators that it is not a security threat.
Last year the vendor said that it would turn its focus to other markets instead: “The growth of Huawei’s carrier network business is primarily from developed markets in other parts of the world.”
Huawei now has a strong focus on Europe and recently opened a global finance centre in London, aimed at managing the company’s financial risks.
Separately, the Financial Times quoted Ren saying that the vendor’s revenues could double by 2018 to up to US$80bn but dismissed any plans to make acquisitions in smart devices or telecoms equipment in the short term.
