Lenovo pushed into loss by restructuring costs

Lenovo's president Gianfranco Lanci (left) and chief executive Yang Yuanqing (centre) in Hong Kong earlier this year

China's computer and smartphone giant, Lenovo, has reported a net loss of $714m (£469m) after being hit by restructuring costs.

Second-quarter earnings were affected by charges of $923m related to job cuts and clearing stocks of smartphones.

However, the loss was not as large as forecast and the firm's revenue rose 16% to $12.2bn.

Lenovo, which is the world's biggest PC maker, saw its Hong Kong-listed shares rise more than 5% on the news.

Increasing competition

Lenovo said it had continued to experience a declining PC market during the period, together with slowing smartphone and tablet sales globally.

"The macro-economy and global markets remained challenging, along with currency fluctuations in emerging markets," the firm said.

"In addition, the China smartphone market continued to see a market shift from traditional carrier channels to online, while competition in China further intensified," it added.

The company said that its restructuring programme, which included 3,200 job cuts announced earlier this year, was set to generate annual cost savings of $1.35bn.

Last year, Lenovo bought the Motorola brand from Google for $2.9bn in an attempt to boost its position in the smartphone market.

It said its share of the global smartphone market had increased to 5.3% in the three months to September, pushing it to the number four position worldwide.