China-based vendor Huawei promised to increase investment as it saw profits fall 53 percent to €1.4 billion last year.

The company, which already re-invests 11.6 percent of its revenues in R&D, said it would spend more to deliver a “cloud-pipe-device” strategy.

It said the fall in profits was largely due to the appreciation of the Chinese Yuan; however, even without foreign exchange fluctuations, profits still declined 36.6 percent.

Results were in line with expectations, the company said.

The news on revenues was better; total sales increased 11.7 percent year-on-year to €24.5 billion.

Huawei registered rises across all three of its main business units.

Its main carrier network segment grew revenues by 2.9 percent to €18.1 billion.

Buoyed by growth in smart devices – the company said it shipped close to 150 million units last year – the consumer business unit registered a 44.3 percent rise in revenues to €5.4 billion.

The enterprise business group, meanwhile, saw sales rise 57.1 percent to €1.1 billion.

Revenues from China increased 5.5 percent to €7.9 billion while revenues from overseas brought in €16.6 billion – an increase of 15 percent.

“In 2011 Huawei achieved all-around growth on the back of strong business momentum generated by the company’s successful transformation into a complete end-to-end ICT solutions provider,” said Ken Hu, rotating and acting CEO.

The company, which is privately owned by its employees, operates a system whereby it rotates the CEO every six months.