Huawei founder says revenue will be billions below forecasts
Ren Zhengfei said ‘no-one will win’ if the US government continues to take what he called extreme measures against the company.
Huawei’s founder has likened his company to a badly damaged plane, and said revenues will be 30 billion US dollars (£24 billion) less than forecast over the next two years.
Ren Zhengfei said at company headquarters in Shenzhen that the Chinese telecom giant will reduce capacity, but insisted that US moves to restrict its business “will not stop us”.
He said the company expected revenues of about 100 billion dollars (£79 billion) annually for the next two years, compared to 105 billion dollars (£83 billion) in 2018. In February, he said the company was targeting 125 billion dollars (£99 billion) in 2019.
The US government has put Huawei on a blacklist, meaning that American companies that want to sell parts to the Chinese firm will need approval from Washington’s commerce department.
The action comes as Huawei and its competitors prepare to launch next generation 5G mobile networks.
Mr Ren said there are no “backdoors” in its equipment that anyone could access, and that Huawei is willing to enter into an agreement over the security of its products with any nation that wants one.
The Huawei founder said it had never occurred to executives that the US government would be so determined to take such a wide range of what he called extreme measures against the company.
“I think both sides will suffer,” he said. “No-one will win.”
