ęęłęóSekcja: Emerging Market News
US-based PE firms have collaborated to form two groups to acquire a stake in Chinese Huawei Technologies business division (a telecommunications equipment supplier in China) for over USD 2 billion. One group comprises Silver Lake and Providence Equity Partners, while the other includes AEA Investors and General Atlantic. Silver Lake, AEA Investors, Bain Capital, Goldman Sachs' PE group, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts cleared the first round of the Huawei auction. The funding will be used for supporting Huawei's expansion plans in the US. Established in 1988, Huawei Technologies is a private high-tech enterprise that specializes in the research and development (R&Amp;D), production, and marketing of communications equipment as well as providing customized network solutions to telecom carriers. Valued at more than USD 4 billion, the Huawei mobile devices division comprises business groups including mobile handsets, data cards for laptops, and routers for domestic use.
ęęłęóTytuł: Bidding for Huawei Technologies to harden as General Atlantic drops out. Euroweek, 09527036, 9/5/2008, Zagadnienie 1070 Baza danych: Business Source Complete
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Bidding for Huawei Technologies to harden as General Atlantic drops out (wypuszczac)
Sekcja: Asia Syndicated Loans
Private equity firm General Atlantic has dropped out of the bidding for the handset unit of China's Huawei Technologies Co.
Remaining bidders are Bain Capital; Providence Equity Partners and Silver Lake; and AEA Investors which has managed to bring in other investors. Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts are also said to be looking at the asset.
One head of leveraged finance based in Hong Kong and involved in the bidding said he expected Huawei to ask the remaining interested parties to reaffirm the prices they submitted after the first round.
"Handset companies everywhere are being hit by slowing global economic growth," said the banker. "So the initial quoted prices may not be applicable anymore."
Foxconn International Holdings, the world's largest contract maker of handsets, has fallen 69% this year and is the worst performer on Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index. Huawei is prepared to divest a 49% stake but is considering selling more if a private equity firm is willing to offer a control premium. The business reports revenues of $3.5bn and net profits of about $400m.
The division's sales accounted for 16.4% of Huawei's group revenues last year, rising from 11.8% in 2006, according to industry analysts.
Morgan Stanley is conducting the auction.
ęęłęóHuawei Hits The Waves With Global Marine
China's Huawei Technologies Co. is getting into the submarine optical cable business in a joint venture with undersea market giant Global Marine Systems.
The new operation, to be called Huawei Submarine Networks Ltd (Huawei Submarine), will launch early next year.
Financial terms of the venture were not disclosed, but the relative technical and business contributions of the two are obvious. Huawei will provide end-to-end submarine network equipment and related services. Global Marine, meanwhile, will lay and maintain the cable — a task at which it claims market dominance.
Although Huawei has sold some gear into the submarine market in the past, it hasn't been a major business for the company. Now it appears to be targeting a grab for a major position in the market. "Huawei Submarine Networks is a major focus for both companies and introduces a competitive new entrant into the submarine telecommunication market," says Global Marine CEO Gabriel Ruhan. "The continuing growth of the regional and long haul market has persuaded us that a credible, innovative new company is needed by telecoms providers."
"Huawei is a trusted industry partner to many of the world's leading telecommunication carriers and providers," adds Huawei Executive Vice President and CSO Ping Guo. "There is enormous scope to improve the competitiveness of this market and, with Huawei's impressive global R&D and manufacturing capabilities and Global Marine's broad submarine engineering expertise, we intend to improve value for customers by offering unique solutions for all our customers future network plans."
By linking with Global Marine, Huawei gains access to the industry's largest fleet of ships to lay and repair submarine fiber: 12 ships out of the roughly 40 that ply the world's oceans. Still, Huawei Submarine is going to have to unseat a string of established market players including Alcatel-Lucent, which has a half-a-dozen ships of its own and challenges Global Marin's claim of market leadership. Other major players include Tyco and Flag, with ships of its own, and Fujitsu and NEC, which supply electronics to the underseas cable players rather than field their own fleets. Huawei's deal with Global Marine also doesn't appear to be exclusive, meaning the other electronics players will still have a shot at Global Marine business.
[Copyright 2006 Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights reserved.]
ęęłęóTytuł: Telecom Companies, PE Firms Plan to Acquire Stake in Huawei's Handset Unit. EmergingMarketsNOW, 5/19/2008 Baza danych: Business Source Complete
Telecom Companies, PE Firms Plan to Acquire Stake in Huawei's Handset Unit
Sekcja: Emerging Market News
Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies, China's largest telecom equipment maker, is planning to sell more than 50 percent stake in its handset unit for a minimum of USD 2 billion. Telecom companies, such as Verizon Communications, Vodafone Group, and AT&T, and PE funds including Blackstone, TPG, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts are competing to acquire the stake. Vodafone and AT&T have been named as possible buyers for a 50 percent stake in Huawei. The company plans to offload its mobile phone, laptop, wireless data-card and home router businesses — retaining its network infrastructure division.
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ęęłęóChina's Huawei Gives it Up for Vodafone
Sekcja: Top News
TECHNOLOGY
What's in a brand? For the mainland manufacturer, the advantages of producing handsets for a cellular giant are more important than fame
London cellular giant Vodafone (VOD) has unveiled its latest phones, and they're made in China. On one level, that's not a huge surprise. After all, Chinese factories now manufacture tens of millions of cell phones.
What's noteworthy is that the Vodafone 701 models that will be available in European markets in early October are not low-end commodity phones but whiz-bang, feature-laden 3G handsets, the sort of more sophisticated gadgetry that Chinese manufacturers haven't produced in the past.
Vodafone's Chinese partner is telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies. The two companies announced plans to team up early this year, with Huawei producing the handsets on an outsourcing basis for Vodafone -- that is, without the Huawei name. This is no ordinary launch for Vodafone, but actually the company's first own-branded 3G consumer handsets. The phone features an MP3 player and 1.3-megapixel camera, and can handle video telephony.
Few European consumers are likely to notice or care that their high-end handset was made by a Chinese outfit. In the recent product launch press materials, Vodafone's global director of terminals, Jens Schulte-Bockum, stressed that this is the company's first self-branded 3G handset and bypassed Huawei's key role. "We're proud that this phone carries only the Vodafone name," Schulte-Bockum said in a canned statement distributed to the media.
IN AGREEMENT.
Even so, this is a hugely important step for Huawei. It's proof that the company is making progress in its drive to diversify away from its traditional business of routers and other types of infrastructure. Ping Guo, senior vice-president of Huawei Technologies, said in a statement when the two companies first announced their partnership that the deal would help propel the Shenzhen company into the top ranks of handset makers globally.
"This agreement will enable Huawei to become one of the world's leading players in handset development and production," he said. "We already have a strong presence in the global market, and this agreement offers us a great opportunity to expand into new regions alongside the world's leading mobile community."
The Vodafone handsets also show that Huawei is willing to be flexible as it expands globally, since the Chinese company is willing to give up all branding rights. Huawei's crosstown rival, ZTE, is making similar moves. It announced on Sept. 14 in Beijing that it had reached an agreement with BT Group (BT) to provide the British operator with 3G handsets.
OWN-BRAND FAILURE.
Other companies from China such as PC maker Lenovo and white goods producer Haier are focusing on building up their own brand names globally. They haven't had an easy time of it.
Also struggling is Taiwan's BenQ (BNQCY). For years, it was successful as an outsourcing manufacturer for companies such as Motorola (MOT).
But in an attempt to build up its own-brand business, BenQ last year took over the money-losing handset operations of German conglomerate Siemens (SI). BenQ hasn't been able to turn the cellular business around and on Sept. 29 announced that its German subsidiary was declaring bankruptcy.
But Huawei executives are betting that their willingness to let Vodafone have the branding rights will help the Chinese company avoid a similar fate. With this strategy, Huawei is taking a page from the playbook of successful Taiwanese contract manufacturers such as High Tech Computer (HTC) that are willing to stay in the background.
ONCE BITTEN.
HTC is the world's biggest producer of Windows-enabled smart phones, but most of the handsets it sells in the U.S. and Europe only carry the brand of its customers, operators such as Verizon (VZ) and Sprint Nextel (S).
Just as important for Huawei is the symbolism of the Vodafone deal. Huawei may be China's top information technology company, but it also was the defendant in a high-profile lawsuit brought by Cisco (CSCO) in 2002, with the U.S. company alleging that Huawei improperly lifted Cisco intellectual property. The companies eventually settled before the case came to trial, and ever since then, Huawei executives have emphasized the company's commitment to patents, copyrights, and intellectual property rights protection.
The Vodafone alliance, according to Guo, is a vote of confidence in Huawei as a company that doesn't cut corners. "We consider the partnership with Vodafone as a sign of the trust they have in the quality of our research and production," said Guo in his press statement.
A NEW TREND?
Huawei isn't the only Chinese company that has been successfully diversifying into cellular handsets. Lenovo, the leading personal computer brand in China and the world's No. 3 PC player thanks to its acquisition last year of the IBM PC division, has also been making a push into mobile phones.
Unlike Huawei, Lenovo is focusing on building up its own brand. It's hard to pass through the streets or subways of Beijing without coming across slick-looking Lenovo ads hawking the company's products.
Only a few years ago, Lenovo was an also-ran in the Chinese cell phone market, but in the past two years the company has focused on building up the business and is now the leading Chinese brand, ahead of traditional leaders TCL and Bird. [Foreign brands such as Nokia (NOK), Motorola, and Samsung (SSNGY) are the only ones now ahead of Lenovo.]
With Lenovo's rapid progress in the cell phone business and Huawei's moves into 3G, some people see the beginnings of a trend, with Chinese companies becoming more influential outside of China. Ya-Qin Zhang, corporate vice-president at Microsoft (MSFT), is president of the company's China R&D group. He's impressed with the way Lenovo has been able to come out of nowhere in mobile phones to become the leading Chinese brand in just two years.
Zhang credits Lenovo's experience making PC hardware and software, which he believes helped the company roll out hardware and software for cell phones. Zhang sees more Chinese companies making their presence felt on the global stage. "A lot of companies are getting to be world-class," he says.
~~~~~~~~
By Bruce Einhorn
This article first appeared at http://www.Business Week Online. An online version remains in the Business Week Online archives. Copyright of Business Week Online is the property of Business Week Online, and its content may not be copied without the copyright holder's express written permission except for the print or download capabilities of the retrieval software used for access. This content is intended solely for the non-commerical use of the individual user. Reprinted with permission by EBSCO Publishing.
ęęłęóTytuł: Huawei aims to become a global force. Wg: Lens, Michel, Global Wireless, 10967729, Mar/Apr2001, Tom 4, Zagadnienie 2 Baza danych: Business Source Complete
HUAWEI AIMS TO BECOME A GLOBAL FORCE
Treść
High-level support
Humble beginnings
WIRELESS CARRIERS IN CHINA
Sekcja: Focus
China
Vendor makes mobile-industry push
BEIJING--Huawei Technologies, based in China's southern boomtown of Shenzhen, is poised to become a global player in the telecommunications field. Already China's largest producer of telephone switches, the company is now branching out into the mobile field and aggressively moving abroad. While privately owned, Huawei retains strong links to the army, enabling it to pull a lot of strings in Beijing.
Huawei's sales are rising fast, from US$1.5 billion in 1999 to US$2.66 billion in 2000 and projected sales of US$5 billion this year, of which 20 percent would be realized abroad. Overseas income is expected to increase to 40 percent in three to five years. Huawei has sales offices in 45 countries. The company's Hong Kong subsidiary Huawei Tech Investment is said to be planning an overseas listing.
The company's GSM equipment has been installed in more than 20 provinces in China and 10 countries abroad, totaling nearly 30,000 base stations and 10 million lines of mobile switching capacity.
In December last year, Huawei Technologies signed a US$10 million contract with Daewoo Unitel, the largest of four GSM operators in the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan. Also in December, China Mobile Communications selected Huawei as one of four suppliers for the first phase of its General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) project, which will cover 25 cities in 16 provinces with a network capacity of 409,000 subscribers.
Huawei will build GPRS networks in Shenyang and Dalian in the northeastern province of Liaoning and in Zhangzhou in southern Fujian province. The other selected suppliers are Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia, while Huawei beat world-renowned companies Siemens, Nortel and Alcatel.
In the middle of last year, Motorola (China) signed an agreement with Huawei to integrate Huawei's M800 GSM switch with its own base station system. Texas Instruments, 3Com, Lucent, Intel, AT&T and IBM have all signed cooperation agreements with Huawei, which besides being a rival, has also become a strategic partner.
Wu Bangguo, one of China's vice-premiers in charge of the country's state-owned enterprises (SOEs), suggested in 1996 that Huawei, which up to then only manufactured central office switches, should set its sights on developing GSM switches and handsets to break the monopoly of foreign suppliers. Wu is a member of the elite Politburo of the Communist Party and a hopeful to succeed Premier Zhu Rongji when he is expected to step down in March 2003. Backed by a 50 million yuan (US$6 million) loan, the company did as suggested by Wu.
Last year, Huawei received a string of powerful visitors, including President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji and the Minister of Information Industry Wu Jichuan.
Huawei also claims 40 percent of China's 22 million Internet users access the Internet through its A8010 access server. In optical network products, its market share in China is 30 percent. Broadband metropolitan solutions' have been implemented in more than 20 areas in China. The company said its Tellin intelligent network system is the first in the world to comply with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) CAMEL Phase II recommendation.
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