China computer giant Lenovo swings back to profit

HONG KONG: Lenovo Group, China's biggest personal computer maker, said Thursday it swung back to profit on a rebound in global demand, while it also broke into double-digit market share for the first time.

The company earned 54.86 million US dollars in the fiscal first quarter ended June 30, compared with a loss of 16.01 million US dollars in the same period last year, it said in a statement.

That boost translated into earnings of 57 US cents per share compared with a loss of 18 cents per share last year.

Lenovo's sales rose almost 50 percent to 5.15 billion US dollars in the quarter, up from 3.44 billion US dollars last year, it said.

"During the (quarter), the worldwide PC market continued to extend the strong growth momentum started in the second half of last fiscal year to grow at 20.9 percent year-on-year," Lenovo said.

"This growth came despite rising worries over sovereign debt in Europe and the pace of economic recovery."

The Hong Kong-listed company added that it "has surpassed the threshold of double-digit worldwide market share for the first time and achieved a historic high market share of 10.2 percent."

At midday, Lenovo shares were down 2.08 percent to 4.69 Hong Kong dollars (60 US cents) on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Lenovo, which bought International Business Machines' personal computer business in 2005, is the world's fourth-biggest PC maker by shipments behind Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer.