Smartphone Maker Lava Eyes India Venture With Chinese Partner

Shanghai-based Huaqin, with more than 33,000 employees and sales topping $13 billion last year, designs and makes smartphones, laptops, tablets and smartwatches for customers including Vivo, Xiaomi Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Lenovo Group Ltd., Amazon.com Inc. and Acer Inc. A partnership with Lava would give Huaqin deeper access to one of the world’s fastest-growing major electronics markets that has an abundance of labor cheaper than that in China. For Lava, the pact would bring in much-needed capital and expertise as the company seeks to become a formidable electronics player.