Chinese group to sell stake in Lenovo parent

The Chinese Academy of Sciences wants USD 408.8 million for 29 per cent of Legend Holdings, according to an announcement issued through the Beijing Equity Exchange, a financial firm.

The academy will remain Legend's key shareholder with a 36 per cent stake after the sale and the buyer must agree not to alter management or strategy for five years, the announcement said. Legend says the remaining shares are owned by its employees.

The announcement gave no reason for the sale and an academy spokesman did not respond to phone messages. But the newspaper China Business News said the academy is reducing its stakes in the nearly 500 companies that it owns in an effort to improve management.

The buyer must have operations in finance, energy and real estate, said the announcement, dated Friday. It said the academy wants to sell to a single buyer and will hold an auction if there is more than one bidder after the offer closes September 3.

Lenovo was founded as Legend Computers in 1984 by a group of 12 researchers including Liu Chuanzhi. It adopted the Lenovo name in 2003 and became a global PC maker in 2005 with its acquisition of IBM Corp's PC unit.