ZTE's net profit in 2017 reported on Thursday was slightly higher than its preliminary profit of 4.55 billion yuan and was a turnaround from a net loss of 2.36 billion yuan in the year earlier, it said in a statement on the Shenzhen stock exchange.

The Shenzhen-based company, which is also a major smartphone maker in China, reported revenue of 108.8 billion yuan in 2017, up 7.5 percent from a year ago, the company said.

ZTE paid an $826 million fine last year to settle a U.S. sanctions case, which has already been booked in its 2016 financial report, the company said earlier this year.

($1 = 6.3163 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Min Zhang in BEIJING and Meg Shen in HONG KONG. Editing by Jane Merriman)