Lenovo Group announced record Group revenue in the second quarter of US$14.5 billion, up 7% year-on-year and with all businesses showing strong growth. Profit showed even stronger growth, with record pre-tax income of US$470 million, up 52% compared to the same quarter a year earlier, while net income also increased by 53% year-on-year to a record US$310 million. In addition to record quarterly results, Lenovo’s financial strength and sustainability has been further validated recently with strong inaugural investment grade ratings from Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, and a successful global notes offering.
Basic earnings per share for the second quarter were 2.59 US cents or 20.08 HK cents. Lenovo’s Board of Directors declared an interim dividend of 6.6 HK cents per share.
According to preliminary results from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, worldwide PC shipments grew 14.6% year over year to 81.3 million units between July and September 2020. At a regional level, in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), traditional PC shipments also experienced growth over the same time period, with particular developments in the notebook category, as e-learning, working from home and entertainment demands continued to increase.
With efforts to also diversify its tablet portfolio, IDC’s preliminary data notes Lenovo experiencing 62.4% year-over-year growth – driven largely by agile working and remote learning trends.
“Our record results this quarter reflect our ongoing commitment to meeting the needs of the rapidly growing work-, learn-and play-from-home economy. All of our core businesses delivered year-on-year growth, while our Software and Services revenue grew to a new record,” said Yuanqing Yang, Lenovo Chairman and CEO. “As the world continues to adjust to the ‘new normal’, we are confident in the long-term growth potential of both devices and cloud infrastructure. We will continue to leverage our core competences of operational excellence and global/local footprint, while accelerating our service-led transformation to better grasp opportunities and drive sustainable growth.”
Business Outlook
2020 continues to be a year with multiple industry factors impacting supply and manufacturing, including the ongoing geo-political uncertainties, the global COVID-19 pandemic, and industry-wide component supply shortages driven by strong demand. However, Lenovo sees a positive outlook for the second half of the year, with the new global norm of work, learn and play from home driving long-term growth trends in device demand and cloud/infrastructure requirements. In particular, the Group expects the total PC market to grow well beyond current analyst forecasts to closer to 300 million units in calendar year 2020, around 25 million more than the total available market last year.
Business Group Overview
Lenovo’s Intelligent Devices Group (IDG) continues to lead the Group’s growth with all-time record revenue for the PC and Smart Devices Group (PCSD)of US$11.5 billion, up 8% year-on-year. It reported record PTI of US$723 million, showing growth of 18% year-on-year, and maintained a profit margin of 6.3%. Lenovo’s operational capability, timely response to the work and learn from home trend and focus on high-growth and premium segments drove the record quarterly performance.
IDG’s second business unit, the Mobile Business Group (MBG), had revenue growth of 39% quarter-to-quarter and returned to year-on-year growth, continuing the strong recovery from the impact of COVID-19. Growth in the company’s stronghold markets of Latin America and North America was further solidified, while growth in Europe and Asia Pacific was accelerated. The quarter also saw key innovation milestones with the launch of the razr 5G foldable smartphone and the company’s first dedicated gaming phone under the Lenovo Legion brand. The business will continue to leverage its strong product portfolio and 5G innovation to drive future profitable growth.
The Data Center Group (DCG) saw continued growth. Revenue grew 11% year-on-year to $1.48 billion, with improved profitability. The Cloud Service Provider segment continued to grow, with revenue increasing 34% year-on-year, with strong growth across all geographies. Underpinning this result is Lenovo’s sustained investment in in-house design and manufacturing, which delivered a major motherboard and system design win. Revenue in theEnterprise and SMBwas close to flat year-on-year butoutperformed the market forecast by 3 points. It saw double-digit growth across the business in Software Defined Infrastructure (22%), Storage (15%), Software (47%) and Services (11%). An additional growth area for the segment is Lenovo’s recently announced partnership with SAP. Lenovo’s TruScale Infrastructure-as-a-Service combined with SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud enables customers to keep their sensitive data on-premises and secure, with the flexibility of pay-as-you-go consumption model.
Lenovo’s Intelligent Transformation saw strong momentum in Q2, with double-digit growth in all its segments. The results demonstrate its significance as a long-term growth catalyst for the Group. Smart Internet of Things saw strong growth of over 36% year-on-year, while Smart Infrastructure (21%) and Smart Verticals (72%) both delivered strong double-digit revenue growth. Software and Services grew 39% year-on-year to a new record of US$1.2 billion, now representing more than 8.5% of Group revenue, even as total Group revenue increases. Lenovo’s Attached Service and Software, Managed Service and Solutions also saw fast growth and E-commerce revenue grew by over 40% year-on-year.
