ZTE has revealed it expects to swing back to a profit for FY13, after reporting a 132% increase in net profit for the first nine months of the year.
The company reported a net profit of 552 million yuan ($90.6 million) for the nine-month period. But revenue declined 10% to 54.66 billion yuan.
ZTE advised investors it forecasts a return to the black for the full year, after reporting a quarterly loss of 2.84 billion yuan – its first ever – in 2012.
For the third quarter, net profit grew 112% to 241.6 million yuan – at the lower end of its forecast for the quarter of 190 million to 440 million yuan.
The vendor attributed the turnaround to stringent cost controls and to placing limits on the signing of low-margin contracts.
While global operator capex has remained sluggish this year, ZTE said it expects large-scale TD-LTE rollout projects in China and the Broadband China high-speed broadband project to increase market opportunities for the vendor in the future.
Looking ahead, ZTE aims to concentrate on infrastructure markets in which it has a strong presence, while expanding its position in the handset as well as the enterprise and government ICT segments.