A Chinese employee at Xiaomi's Mi Home in Shanghai Photo: IC

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi on Thursday announced that it has granted approximately 174.9 million shares to 4,931 employees, the largest incentive for employees since the company went public. The move came after the firm reported better-than-expected earnings and launched a share buyback program. 
 
The incentive plan includes selected employees in the second phase of Xiaomi's "Entrepreneur Program" and other outstanding employees, while the company's senior executives are not included. 

Lei Jun, founder of Xiaomi Group, said that after recruiting 5,000 engineers last year, the company will continue to maintain its pace of recruitment this year, aiming to hire another 5,000 engineers this year.

On Tuesday, the company released its financial report of 2021. Last year, Xiaomi's annual revenue reached 328.3 billion yuan ($50.83 billion), up 33.5 percent year-on-year, while net profit increased 69.5 percent to 22 billion yuan.

In 2021, revenue from the company's smartphone business reached 208.869 billion yuan, up 37.2 percent year-on-year, with annual smartphone shipments totaling 190 million units, a year-on-year increase of 30 percent.

On the same day, Xiaomi announced that it will buy back shares worth up to HK$10 billion ($1.28 billion), in a vote of confidence for its own business outlook. The board of directors believes that the company's existing financial resources are sufficient to support the share buyback program, while maintaining a healthy financial position, Xiaomi said.

Global Times