Lenovo restructures to integrate IBM PC purchase

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's Lenovo Group Ltd., the world's third largest PC maker, said on Friday it will overhaul its global organisational structure as it integrates its recently acquired IBM PC business.

As part of the overhaul, Lenovo said it is establishing a new geographic customer sales and service unit in India to take advantage of opportunities in that fast growing market.

The new India sales and service unit will be one of five such geographical units in the company's new organisational structure. The other four are the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Lenovo, China's PC leader with about a third of the domestic market acquired IBM's PC-making business earlier this year for US$1.25 billion in a move to expand beyond its home China market.

The purchase made Lenovo the world's third largest PC maker, behind Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.

Effective Oct. 15, the company said it is also uniting its Lenovo and IBM brands, combining product groups, supply and sales structures into global organisations.

It added it would also combine elements of its supply chain into a new global supply chain organisation.

Lenovo announced the changes in the same week as one of its top executives said the company is aiming to boost share in its core China market to 35 percent by year-end, from 32 percent at the end of the second quarter.

The company is aiming to grow the former IBM PC business outside China at twice the worldwide market rate, in an eventual bid to overtake either HP or Dell to become the world's second largest PC seller.

Lenovo shares were up 1.37 percent at HK$3.70 in Friday trading in Hong Kong.