(Yicai Global) Jan. 22 -- Chinese budget phone brand Honor today launched the V40, its first new device since being spun off from Huawei Technologies.

In the two months since the split, key global partners including Qualcomm have restored supplies to Honor and signed cooperation agreements with the company, according to The Paper, citing Honor CEO Zhao Ming.

Honor's procurement, production and delivery have returned to normal, said Zhao, adding "I would like to thank our partners including Micron Technology, Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Microsoft."

Huawei sold Honor, its budget smartphone brand, on Nov. 17 last year so that it could avoid US export sanctions. Huawei no longer holds any shares in Honor.

Honor has 8,000 employees, half of whom are research and development staff. The company has five R&D bases and more than 100 innovation laboratories worldwide, The Paper report said.

Honor is racing to hire competent personnel in order to develop overseas, said Zhao. It is aiming to hire over 750 people, mainly in R&D and marketing services.

The V40 will be released in Russia soon.

Editor: Tom Litting