Huawei abandons Canberra Raiders sponsorship amid ‘negative’ environment

In revealing the shock decision, the Chinese telco cited a ‘continued negative environment’ it faces in Australia.

Huawei CEO Hudson Liu at the sponsorship announcement in 2019. Picture: Gary Ramage

Chinese telco Huawei says its role as major sponsor of the Canberra Raiders NRL team will end this season due to “the continued negative business environment” it faces in Australia.

The company – branded “high risk” by the federal government and banned from contributing to Australia’s 5G network – has been the team’s major sponsor for a decade.

Its sponsorship of the Raiders is believed to worth about $1 million a season

“Huawei announced a new two-season deal with the Canberra Raiders in June 2019 to run through to the end of the 2021 NRL season,” the company said in a statement.

“However, the continued negative business environment is having a larger than originally forecasted impact on our planned revenue stream and therefore we will have to terminate our major sponsorship of the Raiders at the end of the 2020 season.”

The Raiders deal was Huawei’s first ever major sporting sponsorship in the world.

Raiders players at the sponsorship announcement. Picture: Gary Ramage

Huawei Australia’s chief corporate affairs officer Jeremy Mitchell said: “Even after the Turnbull government banned us from 5G we managed to find the resources to continue the sponsorship but we just can’t financially support it any longer.”

The move follows the dissolution of Huawei’s Australian board, the shedding of 500-plus local jobs and the loss of key contracts including the scrapping of a $200m deal last week to supply a radio communications system for Perth’s urban railway network.

Britain last month followed Australia and the United States in banning Huawei from supplying equipment for its 5G network.

Huawei claims it is owned by about 100,000 employees, rather than the Chinese government.

However, experts say the “trade union committee” that owns 99 per cent of Huawei is not employee-controlled and, like other Chinese unions, is ­“effectively state-owned”.