Lenovo reports flat revenue, weakest in eight quarters

Lenovo Group, the world’s biggest maker of personal computers (PC), reported flat revenue for the April to June quarter when many Chinese cities were hit by Covid-19 lockdowns, marking its most subdued result in eight quarters.

Total revenue came in at Us$16.96bil (Rm75.5bil), in line with an average Refinitiv estimate of Us$16.87bil (Rm75.1bil) drawn from seven analysts. Net income attributable to shareholders rose 11% to Us$516mil (Rm2.3bil).

Lockdowns in China during the quarter dealt a blow to the PC supply chain, with major laptop manufacturing partners, including Quanta, Compal and Wistron suffering significant manufacturing disruptions, according to research firm Counterpoint.

It coincided with the global PC industry coming off the pandemic-fuelled sales boom and the war in Ukraine, prompting several companies from chipmakers to electronics manufacturers such as Intel and Samsung to warn of a sharp slowdown in demand.

Global shipments fell 11.1% in the past quarter from a year earlier, the largest yearon-year decline since the second quarter of 2013, according to Counterpoint.

Lenovo said “the PC market is currently experiencing short-term challenges.”

Counterpoint said Lenovo’s total PC shipments fell 12.7% to 17.4 million units, largely due to weak consumer demand. However, Lenovo maintained its leadership in the global PC market with a 24.4% share.

But strong demand from companies to upgrade their digital capability has fuelled growth in Lenovo’s server and other non-pc business. The company reported 37% revenue growth in its non-pc business during the quarter.