Huawei Investment & Holding Co. in China plans to distribute shareholder dividends of 77.095 billion yuan ($10.65 billion), Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing Shanghai clearing house. The dividends are under the Chinese tech company's employee stock ownership plan or ESOP. It follows a strong comeback to the 5G smartphone market. The ESOP plan came after Huawei regained the No 1 spot in China's smartphone market in the first two weeks of 2024, according to a report by research firm Counterpoint last February. That was the first time for Huawei to recapture the top spot since the US sanctions imposed on the company in 2019, which contributed to continuously eroding its sales share. Counterpoint attributed three reasons behind Huawei's success as its latest Mate 60 sales with Chinese-developed chips, brand loyalty among consumers, and the rapid evolution, and consumer acceptance of its in-house Harmony OS 4.0 operating system. Wholly owned by its employees, Huawei has around 51.3 billion shares outstanding, with founder Ren Zhengfei owing shares in the firm as a natural person and being also part in the ESOP, which has been in place since the company was set up in 1987 and is implemented through the Union of Huawei Investment and Holding, according to China's Daily. Some 142,315 workers were part of the plan as of the end of 2022, according to Huawei's earnings report for that year, the latest full-year data that are available as of now. (1 United States dollar = 7.2359 Chinese yuan renminbi)
