Chinese equipment and smartphone vendor Huawei announced plans to raise $2 billion by selling a 10-year US dollar-denominated bond to fund continued expansion.

Huawei is discussing terms of the bond issue with banks, and the size of the deal could change, but it was likely to be completed this month, the Wall Street Journal reported. The banks involved reportedly include Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, Bank of China, DBS Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.

A year ago Huawei issued a $1 billion 10-year bond that was oversubscribed due to strong demand.

The company is known to have ambitions of moving up from number three in the global smartphone ranking, but is aware of the challenges in taking on Samsung and Apple.

Last week at its annual analyst event Huawei rotating CEO Eric Xu reiterated its its goal of becoming a top-tier consumer mobile device brand, while acknowledging that this will be no easy task. “As you may know, up until now, China has not yet produced a high-end consumer brand. Therefore, we want to take that as a mission, and hopefully in the next five to ten years we can do that.”

Last week its marketing executives talked about the need “to change something” to make more people familiar with the Huawei brand and match its rivals, noting that this year it is “really serious about building our brand,” which will require additional investment in marketing as well as R&D.

Strong momentum
The Shenzhen-based vendor posted robust growth last year, with its consumer group’s revenue growing 73 per cent to CNY129.1 billion ($19.9 billion), which it attributed to “increased demand for high-quality products that deliver a premium user experience”. It shipped some 108 million smartphones and moved up to third place in the global ranking.

The company’s net profit rose 33 per cent to CNY36.9 billion, on total revenue of CNY395 billion, which was up 37 per cent. According to Financial Times, last year marked Huawei’s best annual revenue growth in seven years.

Its operator business, its largest group, saw revenue grow 21 per cent to CNY232.3 billion, with 4G networks driving much of that growth.