Lenovo Profits

Lenovo  Profits


Lenovo Net Profit More Than Doubles - Lenovo Group Ltd. said strong corporate demand helped more than double its fiscal fourth-quarter net profit from a year earlier, as the Chinese computer maker continues its push into mobile devices with plans to launch a tablet device in the U.S. this summer. The results come as personal-computer makers benefit from a wave of computer-hardware replacement by businesses. Lenovo has also benefited from growth in its business in China and other emerging markets, and it is seeking to offer more "mobile Internet" products such as smartphones and tablet computers to boost margins. Lenovo's net profit for the three months ended March 31 was $42 million, up from $13 million a year earlier and above the average $34.6 million forecast of six analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires. Revenue rose 13% to $4.88 billion from $4.32 billion, below the average $5 billion forecast in the poll. In March, Lenovo started selling the LePad tablet device in China to compete with the likes of Apple Inc.'s iPad, which dominates the global tablet market. Lenovo Chairman Liu Chuanzhi, speaking at a news briefing Thursday, said he is confident the LePad's market share in China can reach 20% since the tablet caters to Chinese-language users. Lenovo will launch a version of its tablet outside China around June, and it will launch a tablet for corporate users around August, Lenovo Chief Operating Officer Rory Read said. Lenovo, which bought International Business Machines Corp.'s PC business in 2005, is China's largest PC maker by shipments. It is the world's fourth-biggest PC maker behind Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and Acer Inc. Lenovo has aimed to steer away from reliance on mature markets such as the U.S. for overseas growth. The company refocused on China and emerging markets in 2009 after struggling with weak consumer sales and declining market share. Lenovo "will continue to actively look for inorganic growth opportunities within the PC industry," it said in a statement. Mr. Read said Lenovo will look at acquisition opportunities that can increase the company's scale or that align with its efforts in the mobile Internet area. In January, Lenovo said it would invest $175 million to form a joint venture with Japan's NEC Corp. Lenovo, which said it would hold a 51% stake in the venture, said the deal would let it leverage its low component costs with NEC's premium pricing in Japan for higher profits. For its last fiscal year, Lenovo's net profit more than doubled to $273.2 million from $129.4 million a year earlier. Full fiscal year revenue rose 30% to $21.6 billion from US$16.6 billion.