XIAOMI Corp. chief executive officer Lei Jun said the Chinese handset maker, valued at US$45 billion by a 2014 funding round, wasn’t planning a public listing at the moment.

    Lei, speaking to reporters at the opening of the National People’s Congress in Beijing on Saturday, said he wants Xiaomi’s initial public offering (IPO) to be a natural process and noted that he is already the de facto controller of several publicly traded companies.

    While not ruling out a listing for Xiaomi, he said it would not be for “the time being.” Asked how he would define “time being,” Lei smiled, without answering.

    Xiaomi had been one of China’s most exciting startup stories of the past few years, after a fairy-tale run of growth that helped it secure US$1.1 billion in 2014 from investors including GIC Pte., All-Stars Investment Ltd. and Russia’s DST.

    Its market share, however, has since been pinched by competitors including Huawei, the country’s leading brand in the fourth quarter.

    Lei said Xiaomi was planing to produce a high-end smartphone. The company began selling a new phone model, the Mi5, this month priced at 1,999 yuan (US$307).

    Xiaomi sold more than 70 million smartphones last year, falling well short of an 80 million unit target and prompting Lei to tell employees he was refocusing research efforts into “cool stuff” like robotics and virtual reality.

    Xiaomi has been losing market share as consumers increasingly split between those opting for cheaper phones and those aiming at premium models from established rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co. Xiaomi’s line-up sits mainly in between.

    At the annual meeting of China’s legislature Saturday, Lei said he believes there will be another round of momentum for mobile Internet products and services and that the most-promising developments would be in rural areas as 4G networks expand and prices for higher-end smartphones fall.

    When asked if Xiaomi was interested in making cars, a business that other Chinese technology companies such as Baidu Inc. have entered into, Lei said that they didn’t have such a plan at the moment. (SD-Agencies)