Lenovo reports $55 m profit

Profit was $55 million for three months ending June 30, or 54 cents per share, compared with a $16 million loss last year, the company said. Global sales surged 50 per cent from a year earlier to $5.1 billion, boosted by a 50 per cent rise in Lenovo’s home China market. Sales in other emerging markets doubled.

Lenovo has tried to build on its dominance in China and expand in other developing markets to offset weakness in Western economies amid the global crisis — a tactic that chairman Liu Chuanzhi said was working.

The company said its share of the global PC market rose to 10.2 per cent, its first double-digit figure to date.  The company suffered three losing quarters before rebounding to profit in the three months ending last September.

In China, sales rose to $2.5 billion, accounting for 48.7 per cent of worldwide sales.  Sales rose to $821 million, or 16 per cent of total, in other emerging markets including Eastern Europe, India, Latin America, Pakistan and Turkey.  Sales in the US, Europe and other mature markets grew less strongly but still racked up a 38.5 per cent rise over a year earlier to $1.8 billion.