BEIJING (AP) — Lenovo Group, the world’s second-largest personal computer maker, said Wednesday its quarterly profit rose 59 percent over a year earlier on record sales.
Profit for the three months ending March 31 was $67 million, or 0.65 U.S. cents per share, the company announced. Quarterly sales rose 54 percent to $7.5 billion.
For the full year ending in March, Lenovo said profit rose 73 percent to $473 million on a 37 percent increase in sales to $29.6 billion. Global PC shipments rose 35 percent over the previous fiscal year, while full-year market share rose to a new high of 12.9 percent.
“Our fiscal year ended impressively with strong momentum,” said chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing in a statement.
“With the emergence of multiple devices such as smartphones, tablets and smart TV, our industry is entering the ‘PC-plus’ era,” Yang said. “Lenovo is focused on leading the PC industry and building upon that leadership in the ‘PC-plus era.”
Lenovo, which has headquarters in Beijing and in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, reported strong growth in Europe and North America despite economic problems there.
Sales in such mature markets rose 85 percent in the quarter to $3.4 billion, accounting for 45 percent of Lenovo’s revenue. It said PC shipments in North American rose 26 percent despite a flat overall market.
Growth was helped by a joint venture with NEC Corp. in Japan and the purchase of Germany’s Medion AG, a maker of multimedia products and consumer electronics. Both deals were completed in July.
In its home China market, shipments rose 22.7 percent over a year earlier and sales gained 32 percent to $2.9 billion.
Lenovo entered the wireless Internet market in 2010 and has launched smartphones and Web-linked tablet computers to compete with Apple Inc., South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Corp. and Taiwan’s HTC Corp.