ZTE has reported preliminary financial results showing that its full-year net profit almost doubled in 2014.
The Chinese vendor said on Monday that earnings last year came in at 2.64 billion yuan (€365.2 million), compared to CNY1.36 billion in 2013 – an increase of 94.2%.
Revenue is expected to show growth of 8% to CNY81.2 billion (€11.2 billion), driven by growing demand for LTE infrastructure and smartphones, ZTE said.
"Gross profit margin improved during 2014, as ZTE continued to optimise its business operations to attain higher contract profitability," said ZTE, in a statement. "The company’s financial expenses decreased through effective management of interest costs and foreign exposure."
However, ZTE’s preliminary results missed the expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who forecast 2014 net income of CNY2.81 billion on revenue of CNY84.12 billion.
ZTE is due to publish its audited annual results on 25 March.
Rival Chinese kit maker Huawei announced its preliminary earnings last week. It expects full-year earnings to come in at between CNY33.9 billion and CNY34.3 billion. Sales revenue is forecast to be in the range of CNY287 billion-CNY289 billion (c lose to €40 billion).
Like ZTE, Huawei’s audited results will also be published in March.
