BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhua) -- The following are highlights of China's key local business news from the past week.
-- CHANG'AN SALES
Chongqing Chang'an Automobile Co. Ltd., a leading Chinese automobile manufacturer and listed arm of Chang'an Automobile Group, forecast a loss of 1.7 billion yuan to 2.5 billion yuan (253.5 million to 372.8 million U.S. dollars) for the first quarter of 2019.
In a filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Chang'an said it reversed to the loss from a net profit of 1.39 billion yuan in the first three months in 2018 and attributed the loss to poor sales.
-- QIHOO 360 REVENUE
Chinese leading internet security company Qihoo 360 reported its total revenues reached 13.13 billion yuan (about 1.95 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, up 7.28 percent year on year.
Internet advertisement and services, value-added internet services and intelligent hardware were major revenue contributors, which reached 10.66 billion yuan, 1.18 billion yuan and 1.02 billion yuan respectively.
-- GREYBIRD VENTURES INVESTMENT
American venture capital firm GreyBird Ventures signed an agreement with Chinese med-tech company JF Healthcare, pledging an investment of 5 million U.S. dollars to help the company develop intelligent technologies for better diagnosis at the community level.
It is GreyBird Ventures's first investment project in the Asia-Pacific region.
-- VOLKSWAGEN PRODUCTION
Volkswagen plans to produce 11.6 million electric cars in China by 2028.
The company will cooperate with joint ventures including FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC Volkswagen to accomplish the goal.
Volkswagen plans to make 22 million electric cars around the world by 2028.
-- IFLYTEK NET PROFIT
China's major artificial intelligence (AI) company iFlytek registered a net profit increase of 24.71 percent in 2018.
The company's net profit reached 542 million yuan (80.8 million U.S. dollars) last year. The company's total revenue rose 45.41 percent year on year to 7.92 billion yuan.
Growing business in educational, judicial and healthcare services that the company provided was one of the major contributors to the increase.
-- LUCKIN'S FINANCING
Chinese start-up Luckin Coffee has completed its Series B+ round of financing worth 150 million U.S. dollars.
The funding, among which 125 million U.S. dollars are invested by BlackRock, which came four months after the coffee chain picked up 200 million U.S. dollars in investment, lifts the company's valuation to about 2.9 billion U.S. dollars.
