China's business press carried the following stories on Wednesday. China.org.cn has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

Geely set to control London cab maker—China Business News

Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, which has made a recent stir by inking a deal with Ford to buy its Volvo on March 28, announced yesterday that it may increase its stake in the London cab maker Manganese Bronze from its current 23 percent to a controlling 51 percent.

According to its 2009 earnings report, Manganese Bronze posted a pretax loss of 7.3 million pounds (US$10.9 million). The company hopes Geely's money can help bail it out of financial difficulties.

State-owned companies dominate outbound M&A activity– Oriental Morning Post

Of China's overseas mergers and acquisitions in the past five years with volumes above US$50 million, 81 percent have been directed by state-owned companies, according to a report released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) on March 30.

The report states that Chinese companies completed a record 298 deals last year, which is in contrast to a slump seen in Europe and the U.S. However, the total volume of deals dropped slightly compared with the 2008 figure, to US$42.6 billion.

Huawei profits 18.3 bln yuan in 2009—China Business News

Huawei Technologies, a leading Chinese telecommunications equipment maker, reported a 133 percent rise in profits to become the second-largest maker after Sweden's Ericsson, according to its statement announced on March 31.

The company reported 18.3 billion yuan (US$2.68 billion) in profits last year, up from 7.8 billion yuan (US$1.14 billion) in 2008. Staff at the fast-rising company attributed the surge to improved operation efficiency and China's booming 3G market.

Despite an uncertain global economic future, Huawei will continue to increase research investment by 27.4 percent to 13.3 billion yuan (US$1.96 billion) this year.