Huawei confirms impending Honor sale to Shenzhen consortium

Sale would allow Honor phones to run Google Mobile Services

Huawei has officially confirmed that it will sell its Honor sub-brand, after months of speculation.

In a statement, the Chinese manufacturer said that it would sell the youth-focused value smartphone brand to the Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co., a consortium of more than 30 entities including the Shenzhen city government, and would subsequently have no shares or be involved in any business decisions pertaining to the brand.

It added that the sale was made to ensure the brand’s survival, noting that Honor ships around 70 million smartphones a year.

“Once the sale is complete, Huawei will not hold any shares or be involved in any business management or decision-making activities in the new Honor company,” the statement reads.

“This move has been made by Honor’s industry chain to ensure its own survival. Over 30 agents and dealers of the Honor brand first proposed this acquisition.”

Huawei has not offered any further details around the sale in terms of its worth, when it will take full effect, and how it will affect current Honor employees. Last week, Reuters reported that the sale would be worth around £11 billion.

The sale would allow the consortium to make and market Honor devices with Google Mobile Services, which Huawei was unable to do after it was added to the US Entity List last year.

Huawei’s sales saw a slowdown in the third quarter due to US sanctions that have cut it off from chip suppliers, even seeing a sales decline in its domestic market, according to Counterpoint Research.

It said its consumer business had been under “tremendous pressure” due to a “persistent unavailability of technical elements” required for its devices.

Honor has only released one smartphone in the UK this year, the low-range Honor 9A. Mobile News has reached out to Honor UK for comment.