(Yicai Global) April 29 -- Huawei Technologies, the world's biggest maker of telecoms network gear and a smartphone powerhouse, has responded to recent speculation about who exactly owns the Chinese tech titan by revealing that its employees do.

The privately held company's staff own 100 percent of the firm, Board Secretary Jiang Xisheng told reporters at a press conference in Shenzhen on April 25, according to a statement released by the company. No state-owned enterprises have any stake in the Shenzhen-based company, Jiang added.

The clarification follows the April 15 publication of a research report by Prof. Christopher Balding of Fulbright University Vietnam and Prof. Donald Clarke of George Washington University that claimed Huawei could be state controlled because its holding company is 99 percent owned by a trade union committee.

"I can be quite sure that there is no state-owned capital in Huawei and this is very clear," Jiang said.

More than 50 entities, possibly as many as 200, hold Huawei's equity and they cannot be directly registered as shareholders, Jiang said. He added that the firm's use of the labor union as the platform for employees to hold shares has a legal basis, citing a regulation on shareholding of firms' internal staff issued by the Shenzhen municipal government in 2001. Many Chinese companies, in addition to Huawei, had also adopted such methods earlier, Jiang claimed.

Jiang also denied claims that 'the stake held by Huawei employees was just a prearranged plan of profit distribution,' stating that the company's staff are required to buy shares, take part in the profit distribution and shoulder any possible impairment risk. They also need to elect a representative to execute exercise their authority, so Huawei's scheme of equity allocation is not just a plan to share profit.

Huawei founder and Chief Executive Ren Zhengfei has a veto on major issues, but does not have the right to make decisions, Jiang said, adding that Ren's influence is mainly expressed through his thinking and management philosophy.

The firm has issued bonds mainly in the capital markets of Hong Kong and overseas, but has yet to do so on the mainland. Most of its bank loans are also overseas, accounting for about 70 percent, Jiang said.

Editor: Zhang Yushuo, Chen Juan