Lenovo keeps head above water in 2014

Lenovo Group Ltd managed to buck the trend in a year where most of the other personal computer makers withered. The world's largest PC maker on Thursday reassured investors with a healthy PC business, growing enterprise unit and not-too-bad smartphone sales in its annual results.

The Beijing-based company reported net income of $997 million for 2014, up 22 percent year-on-year. Its gross profit for the full year surged to $6.7 billion. Lenovo, listed in Hong Kong, said its PC shipments increased by 2.7 percent year-on-year in the company's fourth quarter that ended on March 31. The company said its market share improved across all regions.

The PC business continued to be the main profit generator for Lenovo amid competition from United States rivals Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc. Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo chairman and chief executive, said he expected the firm will control about 23 percent of the global PC shipments by next year. Lenovo accounted for 19.6 percent of the shipments by the end of March, according to International Data Corp.