Interview: Lenovo shoots for twice PC industry's growth

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's third-largest PC maker, expects to grow its sales at twice the industry rate in coming years, as it focuses on smaller corporate clients, its chairman said on Wednesday.

Lenovo, which in May acquired IBM's global PC assets for US$1.25 billion, now derives nearly all its non-Chinese sales from corporate customers, but just a quarter of those are small and medium enterprises, Yang Yuanqing told Reuters.

"We have this potential, this opportunity to grow (at) twice the industry average growth," Yang said in a telephone interview after his company named a former Dell executive its new chief executive officer.

"Seventy-five percent (of sales) is in large enterprise," he added. "But the market is maybe 60 percent SMEs and consumers. That's our opportunity to grow in this area."

Dell retained its title as the world's number one PC maker, with 18 percent of the worldwide market in the third quarter. Rival Hewlett-Packard was again second, with 16 percent, followed by Lenovo with a 7.7 percent share.

Lenovo said on Tuesday that William Amelio, the former head of Dell's Asian business and a veteran IBM PC executive, replaced Stephen Ward as chief executive as the company moves into its next growth phase following the IBM purchase.

Lenovo, based in Purchase, New York, and listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, said Ward, 50, will continue with the company as a consultant. Amelio takes over immediately, the company said.