Driven by hefty sale in India, China, Xiaomi swings to net profit in Q3

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc on Monday said it swung to a net profit in the third quarter, beating analyst estimates, driven by robust sales in India and Europe.

Profit for the three months through September reached 2.48 billion yuan ($357.23 million), versus a $11 billion yuan loss in the same period a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

The result compared with a 1.92 billion yuan average of five analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv Eikon.

The results come amid a slowdown in smartphone purchases both in China, where Xiaomi once was the top-selling handset brand, and overseas.

Nevertheless Xiaomi, along with fellow low-cost handset makers Oppo and Vivo, accounted for around a quarter of the global smartphone market in the first half of 2018, showed data from researcher IDC.

Xiaomi also said operating profit sank 38.4 percent to $3.59 billion yuan in the third quarter. Revenue rose 49.1 percent to 50.85 billion yuan.

The results are the second set released by Xiaomi since the smartphone maker raised $4.72 billion in an initial public offering in June, valuing the firm at about $54 billion - around half of some earlier industry estimates of $100 billion.

Its shares have fallen roughly 20 percent since they started trading in July amid a broader Chinese stock market sell-off and concern about a slowdown in China's tech industry.