Lenovo’s profit jumps 25% in Q1

Lenovo Group, the world’s largest maker of personal computers, reported a 25 percent jump in fourth-quarter profit as its desktop models and mobile devices gained global market share.

Net income climbed to $158.3 million in the three months ended March from $126.9 million a year earlier, the company reported yesterday.

Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing has maintained Lenovo’s leadership in the PC market at a time when industrywide shipments have contracted, and he also is expanding sales of smartphones overseas. Lenovo, which in January agreed to buy Motorola Mobility for $2.9 billion, plans to triple the number of countries where it sells phones by adding 20 new markets in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

“The company has always been competitive, be it PCs and mobility,” Dennis Lam, an analyst with DBS Vickers Hong Kong, said in an e-mail. “The PC market has somewhat stabilized in the face of cannibalization from tablets and smartphones. The smartphone side has become more challenging as competition heats up from low end smartphones, especially in China.”

Lenovo’s sales climbed to $9.4 billion from $7.83 billion a year earlier.

While worldwide PC shipments dropped 1.7 percent in the three months ended March, Lenovo expanded market share as sales rose 11 percent, market researcher Gartner reported last month.

Bloomberg