Lenovo Accelerates Turnaround With Double-Digit Quarterly Revenue Growth

For the second straight quarter, Lenovo achieved strong double-digit growth in revenue year-on-year.

Group revenue reached US$11.91 billion, up 19% year-on-year. The company also reported strong pre-tax income during the quarter of US$113 million, an improvement of US$182 million year-on-year, as profitability improved across all businesses. In the first fiscal quarter, Lenovo’s profit attributable to equity holders grew to US$77 million, up US$149 million year-over-year. Basic earnings per share in the first fiscal quarter was 0.65 US cents or 5.10 HK cents.

With this earnings report, Lenovo has turned a corner in its transformation and enters a new phase of growth, thanks to meaningful progress on its strategy and focus on “Intelligent Transformation“ during the quarter. Their decisive steps to consolidate key businesses into a streamlined, integrated enterprise, along with an emphasis on dynamic revenue generators, are quickly yielding significant returns.

Last quarter, Lenovo announced the creation of its new Intelligent Devices Group (IDG), combining its Personal Computer and Smart Devices Group with its Mobile Business Group.  Rethinking the ways these units and their devices interact and impact customers led to IDG’s double-digit, quarterly revenue growth year-over-year, and PC unit market share gains in every geography. At the same time, Lenovo is not only driving, but capitalizing on, global growth trends in both software and services.

The Intelligent Devices Group is energized by the synergy of shared platforms and resources, delivered a strong revenue growth of 14% year-on-year, amounting to US$9.95 billion. During the quarter, the PC and Smart Devices (PCSD) business under IDG delivered strong double digit revenue growth for the 2nd consecutive quarter, growing 19% year to year while maintaining industry leading profitability of 5%.

The Mobile Business Group (MBG) under IDG improved significantly during the quarter thanks to three key measures. Firstly, the group reduced operating expenses by more than US$100 million; secondly introduced a refined product portfolio and thirdly focused on selected markets where the company can compete profitably. Revenue and volume continued to strengthen in Latin America in particular, outgrowing the market in both for seven quarters. In North America, Lenovo’s mobile volume nearly doubled year-on-year thanks to the right scaling strategy to expand to all four major carriers.

Building on a strong Q4, Lenovo’s Data Center Group (DCG) further accelerated its momentum, reporting another record revenue quarter of US$1.6 billion, the third consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth, and up 67.8% compared to the same quarter a year earlier. The record high revenue was driven by growth in Software Defined Infrastructure, High Performance Computing & A.I businesses and Hyperscale. Capital and Incubator Group (LCIG) continues to invest and build the Group’s next-generation IT capabilities in AI, IoT, Big Data and VR/AR across various sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare and transportation.