Lenovo full-year revenue soars past $60 billion mark following 20% uplift

Lenovo Group has seen revenue surge past the $60 billion mark for the first time, following 20% year-on-year growth from the $50.7 billion recorded the prior year.

For the period ending 31 March 2021, the Chinese tech giant also saw net income skyrocket by 77% from $665 million in FY20 to $1.18 billion.

The company said its growth during the year was fuelled by its ongoing move to diversify the company in line with its so-called 3S corporate strategy that aims to deliver products and services based on smart IoT, smart infrastructure, and smart vertical solutions.

"These historic highs were achieved by leveraging our core competencies of a clear strategy, innovative products, operational excellence, and global-local model to meet the new needs in the new normal." Lenovo chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang said.

Yang added the year ended with the company's "fastest growing quarter in almost a decade", pointing out that FY20 Q4 was the "best fourth quarter ever" for the company's PC and smart devices (PCSD) business, which achieved $12.4 billion in revenue, up 46% year on year, as well as its mobile business group that achieved 86% uplift in revenue to $1.54 billion.

When looking at each business segment on a full-year basis, the company reported its intelligence devices group, which is made up of the PCSD and MBG businesses, contributed to 80% of the group's total revenue after it achieved a 22% year on year growth to $48.5 billion.

"The worldwide PC market continued to deliver stronger-than-expected momentum in this challenging year as COVID-19 outbreak has brought many lifestyle changes, including the one-PC-per-person trend. Usage intensity of PC products also rose on accelerated market trends including work-from-home, e-learning, and e-commerce revolution," the company stated.

Similarly, its data centre group achieved $6.3 billion in revenue for the full year, up 15% on the previous year.

As for the company's mobile business group, Lenovo said it managed to recover from COVID-led challenges during the earlier part of the year as evidenced by the 9% climb to $5.7 billion in revenue for FY21.

The full year also saw its software and services business pick up, with revenue growing twice as fast as the company's overall group revenue at almost 40% year on year to $4.9 billion. It now makes up 8% of group revenue, Lenovo said.

Looking ahead, Yang assured the outlook for the remainder of 2021 and the next fiscal year remained positive.

"Looking forward, we will capture the huge growth opportunities created by the market trends of information consumption upgrade, infrastructure upgrade, and application upgrade to drive long-term sustainable growth and ensure we can build an even smarter future in the years ahead," he said.

Earlier this month, Lenovo announced a new lineup of PC accessories, called Lenovo Go, targeted specifically for people working in a hybrid workforce.

The lineup includes a wireless mouse, laptop power bank, headphones with active noise cancelling, and a wireless keyboard.

At the start of the year, Lenovo said hybrid work environments, which have increasingly become the new normal, would need technology that is transportable as people will use various workplaces, but not necessarily be "mobile". Due to this, the company said it was developing devices that have a small form factor while still providing "full performance, full connectivity, and full security" to address this shift.

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