Lenovo triples fiscal Q4 profit

Lenovo Group Ltd's net profit in the fiscal fourth quarter ended in March tripled the level from a year ago as the firm reaped the benefits of a booming China business and robust corporate PC sales, the country's No. 1 personal computer maker said.

In the quarter, Lenovo reported a better-than-expected net profit of US$42.13 million against US$12.8 million a year earlier. Its performance beat the forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters for a US$36.7 million profit.

"The momentum in commercial PC demand has gradually picked up, benefiting from the corporate refresh cycle, while consumer PC demand weakened due to a worsening macroeconomics environment and increasing competition from tablet products," Lenovo said in a stock exchange filing.

For the whole year ended in March, Lenovo's net profit soared 112 percent annually to US$273 million.

China was the major revenue source for Lenovo, the world's No. 4 PC maker.

Lenovo China generated a revenue of US$2.2 billion between January and March, a 12.3 percent growth, which accounted for 45 percent of the company's total revenue.

The growth in China came from surging demand in the country's rural areas.