China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, one of the world's largest telecom equipment makers, posted on Thursday a 15 percent rise in half-year revenue, the slowest growth for that period in four years. Revenue grew to 283.1 billion yuan (US$42.03 billion) in the first six months of 2017 from 245.5 billion yuan a year earlier, Huawei, which vies with Sweden's Ericsson for the top spot globally, said in a statement. The company's operating margin fell to 11 percent from 12 percent a year ago. Huawei does not release half-year profits. "The company is expected to maintain its current momentum, and round out the year in a positive financial position," Huawei said in the statement. Last year, Huawei reported a 40 percent rise in first-half revenue. Huawei, the world's third-largest phone manufacturer after Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc, said it shipped 73.01 million smartphones in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 20.6 percent. Huawei said sales from its consumer business, which includes phones, PCs and other consumer devices, rose 36.2 percent to 105.4 billion yuan, driven by growth in high-end phone sales. Huawei had a 9.8 percent share of the global smartphone market by shipment at the end of the first quarter of 2017, according to industry database IDC. "Our consumer business group continued to deliver extraordinary growth, beating the industry average and penetrating high-end markets around the globe," Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's consumer business group, said in a statement. Huawei said it plans to grow its retail stores worldwide to 56,000 by the end of 2017 from 35,000 in May 2016.
