Chinese PC maker Lenovo has published its results for the third financial quarter ended December 31, 2011, stating that its sales increased by 44% year-on-year to USD8.372 billion; and its profit attributable to shareholders increased by 54% year-on-year to USD153 million.

During the three months ended December 31, 2011, Lenovo's PC business showed strong performance in sales, revenue, and profit growth. According to the report, Lenovo's sales increased by 44% year-on-year to USD8.372 billion, of which the sales of PC business increased by 34% year-on-year to USD7.253 billion. Meanwhile, the company's profit before tax increased by 59% to USD192 million and its profit attributable to shareholders increased by 54% year-on-year to USD153 million. By December 31, 2011, Lenovo's net cash reserve was USD3.9 billion.

The company also said that its gross profit increased by 47% to USD954 million. Promoted by effective profit rate management and strong sales growth, its gross margin increased by 0.2 percentage point to 11.4%. However, due to the supply shortage of hard disc drives, its costs increased and gross margin decreased compared with the previous quarter.

Lenovo said that the company had taken immediate actions to ease the impact brought by hard disc drive supply shortage, including direct communication with major hard disc drive supplies and allocating the hard disc drives to products with high profit rate. At the same time, the company adopted stricter expense control.

During the reporting period, Lenovo's operating expenses increased by 45% year-on-year to USD761 million. The investments were mainly in product innovations, branding, and the development of emerging markets, aiming to promote the sustainable growth and gain better profiting ability.