Chinese personal computer maker Lenovo said Thursday its quarterly profit rose 25 percent on double-digit sales growth in developing markets.
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Net profit for the three months ending Dec. 31 was $100 million, or 98 cents per share, compared with $80 million in the same period of 2009, Lenovo said. Its global sales rose 22 percent to $5.8 billion.
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Lenovo said sales in its home China market rose 18 percent over a year earlier to $2.7 billion, while sales in other developing markets increased 34 percent to $1.1 billion. Sales in the United States and Europe rose 22 percent to $2 billion.
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We will invest in building our global brand, driving more product innovation and creating an even more efficient end-to-end business model, said CEO Yang Yuanqing in a statement. We are confident we can continue to outgrow the market.
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Lenovo has expanded aggressively outside China since it became a global competitor by acquiring IBM Corp.’s PC unit in 2005. Lenovo got into mobile Internet last year with the launch of a smart phone and two Web-linked portable computers.
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In January, Lenovo and NEC Corp. announced they would combine their PC businesses in Japan in a move that gave the Chinese partner wider access to the Japanese market, where it had only a 5 percent share.
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Lenovo is the fourth-largest PC maker and the NEC tie-up might push it above Taiwan’s Acer Corp. to third place behind Hewlett Packard Co. and Dell Inc. The company has headquarters in Beijing and in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
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Among other emerging markets, Lenovo said quarterly sales in India rose 62 percent and in Latin America by 31.4 percent.