Xiaomi continues to target Indian market, has no immediate plans for IPO

(THE WALL STREET JOURNAL) Xiaomi Corp. Chairman and Chief ExecutiveLei Junsaid that India continued to be amajor target marketthis year and that he aimed to further expand in businesses other than smartphones.

The Chinese technology company still has no immediate plans for an initial public offering, he said.

“Our focus has been sharpened on the Indian market,” Mr. Lei said. “We are currently in about sixth or seventh place there, so there’s an improvement, but I hope to move into the top three as soon as possible.”

Mr. Lei made the comments Saturday on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, China’s largely rubber-stamp parliament, of which he is a delegate.

At last year’s NPC, Mr. Lei had unveiled sales targets, but he was more restrained Saturday after Xiaomimissed its smartphone sales targetfor 2015.

He declined to discuss smartphone sales or how the companyplanned to battleits chief domestic rival, Huawei Technologies Co. Xiaomi shot to the top of China’s smartphone market in 2014 with its buzzy online sales of bargain smartphones. China’s smartphone market since then has had an influx of competitors and Xiaomi’s sales growth slowed last year.