Lenovo Q3 profit tops expectations, posting all-time-high revenue and profit

The Lenovo logo is seen in this illustration photo January 22, 2018. [Reuters]

China’s Lenovo Group, the world’s biggest maker of personal computers, posted on Wednesday a bigger-than-expected 53 per cent rise in third-quarter profit, helped by robust demand from people working from home as COVID-19 restrictions persisted. Net profit jumped to USD395 million for the October-December quarter. That beat an average estimate of USD293.7 million from eight analysts, according to Refinitiv data. Revenue increased 22 per cent to USD17.25 billion.

“The strong performance has been fueled by Lenovo’s robust growth across business groups as well as structural changes in lifestyle and work habits since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Lenovo said in a statement.

The all-time-high revenue and profit came as Lenovo said last month it plans to issue Chinese Depository receipts (CDRs) representing up to 10 per cent of its total stock for listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the latest in a line of companies looking for a mainland listing.

Pandemic-fueled buying of laptops and other personal gadgets, as well as televisions, have propped up sales of companies including Samsung Electronics and Panasonic Corp.

According to research firm Gartner, worldwide shipments of personal computers rose 10.7 per cent in the December quarter.

Lenovo strengthened its lead in PCs with 27.1 per cent of the market, ahead of HP Inc with 19.8 per cent and Dell Technologies with 16.6 per cent.