Lenovo reports third quarterly profit on strong China sales, revival of business sales

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Lenovo reports third quarterly profit

BEIJING — Lenovo Group, the fourth-largest personal computer maker, reported its third straight quarterly profit Thursday on strong sales growth in China and a revival in demand from business customers.

Lenovo said profit for the three months ending March 31 was $13 million, or 0.14 U.S. cents per share, compared with a $264 million loss a year earlier. Sales rose 56 percent from the same quarter of 2009 to $4.3 billion.

Lenovo was hit hard by the global economic crisis, which prompted its core corporate customers to slash purchases. The company suffered three losing quarters before rebounding to profit in the three months ending Sept. 30.

“While we have achieved much in the past 12 months, there are both significant challenges and tremendous opportunities ahead of us,” said chairman Liu Chuanzhi in a statement.

In its home Chinese market, sales rose 67 percent over a year earlier to $2 billion. Sales of consumer products, an area targeted for expansion, soared by 90 percent over a year earlier.

Growth in North America, Europe and other mature markets was helped by a recovery in commercial sales that boosted PC shipments by 37 percent over a year earlier.

In India, Latin America and other emerging markets, PC shipments rose 95 percent from a year earlier.

Lenovo, which acquired IBM Corp.’s PC unit in 2005, is expanding aggressively in mobile Internet after launching its first smart phone and two Web-linked portable computers in January. CEO Yang Yuanqing said in February that Internet products should account for up to 80 percent of Lenovo’s sales within five years.