Top China PC maker Lenovo squeezes into the black

Lenovo Group, the world's third-largest computer maker, beat expectations with its quarterly earnings on Thursday, even as it struggled to turn around the loss-making business it bought from IBM.

China's largest maker of personal computers unveiled a net profit of US$5 million in the fiscal first quarter ended June, versus a net profit of HK$357 million a year earlier.

That result beat a consensus mean forecast for a net loss of HK$38.5 million, according to five analysts polled by Reuters this week.

Lenovo, one of a handful of Chinese firms trying to forge a global brand by investing abroad, has been coping with expenses arising from its US$1.25 billion purchase of IBM's PC arm in 2005 and stiff competition from bigger rivals Dell and HP.

Shares of Lenovo closed on down 1.98 percent at HK$2.47 ahead of the results release. They fell 13 percent from April to June, underperforming a three percent gain on the benchmark Hang Seng Index during the same period.

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