Direct flight

    AIR China will launch a direct flight from Beijing to Melbourne on June 1.

    Flight number CA166/165 will take off every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Beginning on Jan. 25, 2016, the flight will be daily.

    Toyota sales

    TOYOTA Motor Corp. and its two Chinese joint ventures sold about 94,700 vehicles in China in January, up 10.6 percent from a year earlier, the Japanese automaker said yesterday.

    That compares with a 15.3 percent rise in December. Toyota aims to sell 1.1 million vehicles in China in 2015, after failing to clear that sales level and meet last year’s target. That means its expected pace of growth in China would almost halve this year to 6.8 percent.

    Anbang Insurance

    CHINA’S Anbang Insurance Group Co. has received the go-ahead from U.S. regulators for its US$1.95 billion purchase of New York’s famed Waldorf Astoria Hotel, the Beijing-based insurer said on its website yesterday.

    The company said the deal, which marks one of the highest prices per room ever paid for a U.S. hotel, was approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

    SZ association

    THE Shenzhen Association of Professional Managers was founded last week with a membership of 32 experienced businessmen in the city.

    The association is chaired by Zhang Youyuan, a senior business consultant. Tsai Cheng-fu, a Taiwanese entrepreneur and president of Airmate (Shenzhen) Company, was appointed as honorary president of the association.