Huawei Mengwan Zhou: Huawei does not consider Huawei's listing

Recently, all kinds of rumours about Huawei are commonplace. It is rumored that Huawei will become family-oriented in the future and Ren Zhengfei’s “only daughter of high school diploma” Meng Wanzhou was promoted to CFO in recent years and was elected as a managing director; Ren Zhengfei and Meng Meng Zhou husband Xu Wenwei is the managing director of the company. Members of the Renshi family accounted for three of the 13 members of the board of directors of Huawei; Ren Renping, the son of Ren Zhengfei, was also allegedly taking a senior position at Huawei and was widely speculated to be Ren Zhengfei's successor.

For this reason, Meng Wanzhouwan first appeared on Huawei's 2012 performance preview media meeting on January 21 and responded to this reporter’s question regarding Huawei’s cash flow.

"My earliest job at Huawei was to answer the phone."

Reporter: There are many rumors about your personal resume. Please give a real version.

Meng Wanzhou: There are some small news on the Internet about me. The first thing to note is that I'm not graduating from high school. I really did read high school, but I had the honor to go to college. (laugh) After working at CCB for a year after graduating from college in 1992, I was able to go to Huawei because I had canceled a banking outlet. I had originally planned to study abroad and I had also received OFER, but I was rejected because I was considering immigration. Before his plan to go abroad, his father said that he had to learn the skills of earning a living abroad, so he went to work with Huawei. At that time, the company was small and had worked as a secretary, assisted the sales and service department, and was responsible for typing, producing product catalogs, and organizing exhibition services. I am one of the only three secretaries of Huawei in his early years. The rumors about the fact that I was the first person to answer the phone at Huawei are facts. My dad said that the first piece of social experience is to have an understanding of people, and the experience of getting mixed up helps to accumulate these experiences.

In 1997, I went to Huazhong University of Science and Technology to study for a master's degree, studied accounting, studied for one and a half years, and returned to Huawei's financial department. This really started my career at Huawei.

Reporter: Did the company’s people know that you were the daughter of General? Do special identities affect your relationship with people in your company?

Meng Wanzhou: They all know. When my father started my business, I was in high school. There was a copy machine in his office. I used to copy papers. Now many of my colleagues, I called them their uncle. This will not be an obstacle to our current relationship. It will take a long time to see people. After a long time, everyone will know who I am and are more willing to speak a lot with me.

Reporter: Why do you name Meng, not your father's surname?

Meng Wanzhou Zhou: The name was changed by myself when I was 16 years old, with my mother's surname. My younger brother is Ren Ping. He is now a Huitong company owned by Huawei. Huitong is a Huawei service company and provides service support for hotel tickets, conventions and exhibitions. Huitong's existence is due to Huawei's need to expand its global business activities, such as attending exhibitions worldwide. , communication and other costs are lower. My younger brother is not a Huawei technology company and does not participate in the main business.

"My husband is not a person in the telecom industry at all."

Reporter: Can you evaluate your father from your personal point of view?

Meng Wanzhou: He is the CEO at work and his father at home. At the executive's meeting, I sometimes debate with him and other executives and like to challenge some things. At home we don't talk about work. He used to be a kind father and my mother was strict mother. After the founding of Huawei, it may be that the management of a company has a high demand for his personality. He is now a strict father and my mother has become a mother. Now there are some things we all said to my mother first, let her do my father's work. I don't have much time to see him right now. In addition to the last week of each month is a regular company work meeting, he will return to Shenzhen in that week, and at other times he is traveling to meet customers on the outside.

Reporter: Rumor has it that your husband is Xu Weiwei, the current executive of Huawei?

Meng Wanzhou: I said that my husband is Xu Wenwei. I heard that Huawei people except Putian (Shenzhen Huawei headquarters) knew that it was not true. People 5 kilometers away from Putian believed it. Actually, my husband is not a person in the telecommunications industry at all. We have two children. The son is 10 years old and the daughter is 4 years old.

Reporter: There are still many people who continue to ask whether Huawei has any plans to go public.

Meng Wanzhou: Basically, my first meeting with the financial community will ask this question. Personally, if Huawei's IPO is open to Huawei, it will certainly be good. However, there are natural barriers to the listing of Huawei, and Chinese laws and regulations require that listed companies have at most 200 shareholders, but Huawei has more than 60,000 employees. With regard to not going public, we have not entered our agenda in the near future.

Huawei does not consider Huawei for the time being

Reporter: Huawei has three BGs (business groups), including operators, corporate networks, and terminal consumption. The latter two are new businesses and require strategic investment. Is there any possibility of spin-off listing?

Meng Wanzhou: I don't think about it for the time being. We still hope that the new business will first establish a certain scale and influence in the market. It is necessary to “strive for a hole” and “make a hole”. It is necessary to put the market on a platform and in an operating mode. The opening of the company's mouth, the corporate network and the consumer market, they have a slow growth period. In addition, the listing is to solve the financing problem. At present, the types, channels, and quotas of funds from the sources are enough to support our operations. Therefore, from the perspective of financing only, we do not think there is a need for listing. To reveal a figure, we currently have a credit line of 33 billion U.S. dollars in banks around the world, and 77% come from foreign banks. Therefore, Huawei is not short of money.

In addition, our customers are of good quality and very good returns. Global operators are top 50, and the top 45 companies are already our customers. The 45 top 27 companies contributed 70% of our sales revenue.

Reporter: The outside world has questioned the way that Huawei's employees hold shares is a disguised and illegal financing method. Its financing needs are greater than incentive considerations. What is your comment on this?

Meng Wanzhou: I personally think that Huawei’s employees’ shareholding is an incentive. When Huawei was founded in 1987, it was only 20,000 yuan. There was nothing. If there was no employee stockholding mechanism, Huawei would not develop today. Only by linking the interests of employees with the long-term interests of the company, Huawei has come to this day. Huawei is a partnership-based company. It is only a matter of "gangs." It solves the problem of "strengthening a hole" (focusing, synergy) and "making a hole" in the company's development.

In 2012, we expect to realize a return of $1.41 per share. In other words, our return per share is 20-30%, and bank financing costs only about 12%. In comparison, the former has a much higher financing cost, and fools will choose this as a financing method.

Reporter: What is the true equity of your company held by your father? Who owns this company? What kind of organization is Huawei's employee shareholding?

Meng Wanzhou: We think that all Huawei employees own Huawei. The total equity of Ren is 1.4%, and the shareholder’s equity will be announced at a later general meeting of shareholders. The Huawei employee shareholding association, also known as Huawei’s labor union, is a registered community organization. Huawei employees hold Huawei’s virtual equity through authorization and agreement with shareholding companies. Huawei's shareholding design was submitted to the Shenzhen Development and Reform Commission in 1987 for approval.

Huawei does not have secrets. With regard to the employee ownership structure, we already have an idea to choose an opportunity to turn the black room into a transparent glass house and announce the details, including the specific number of shares held by senior executives.

Huawei's success is the success of its corporate values, common prosperity, practical commitment, hard work, idealism, and open innovation. "Huawei's story also tells many young people in the society who are affected by the dark and public knowledge. Put aside the misery and start doing something practical today."