Business
* Q1 net profit $141.4 mln vs consensus forecast $131.2 mln
* China slowdown, emerging markets in focus in H2 - analysts
* Shares up about 20 pct so far this year
HONG KONG, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Lenovo Group Ltd,the world's No.2 PC maker by sales, posted a 30 percent rise inquarterly net profit, beating analysts' forecasts, though itlogged its slowest growth in 1-1/2 years mainly due tolacklustre demand in some emerging markets and North America.
The ThinkPad maker has been advancing on the global PC stagedue to aggressive pricing, overseas acquisitions and afast-growing home market, but rapid gains in market share havecome at the expense of thin profit margins.
Lenovo also faces slowing growth in the market for personalcomputers and tough competition from the likes of Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd in thefast-growing tablet PC and smartphone space.
"Although challenges to worldwide PC demand remain largelydue to weakening economic condition, Lenovo remains bothoptimistic about the future of the PC market and committed toinnovation," Lenovo said in a statement.
The company added that it would grow faster than theworldwide PC market and is on track to become the leader in thePC industry.
Lenovo, which ranks behind Hewlett Packard Co in PCsales, posted a net profit of $141.4 million for its April-Junefirst quarter, up from $108.8 million from a year earlier, itsaid in a statement on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday.
The net profit growth was the slowest since the thirdquarter of fiscal 2010/2011, when the pace was about 25 percent,based on previously announced data.
Still, the result was better than an average forecast of$131.2 million in a poll of 10 analysts by Thomson ReutersI/B/E/S.
Lenovo's profit margin has been lagging those of rivals suchas Dell. Its gross profit margin was down 0.5 percentage pointin the first quarter from 12.5 percent a year earlier due toprice competition in emerging markets and China.
In the first quarter, operating profit in North America was$46 million, against an operating profit of $52 million a yearearlier, Lenovo said.
Lenovo, which became the world's No.2 PC vendor in the thirdquarter of 2011, is just a sliver from overtaking HP as the topPC maker globally.
In the April-June quarter, Lenovo had a 14.9 percent globalmarket share, just 0.6 percentage point away from HP's 15.5percent, research firm IDC said.
Figures from industry tracker Gartner show an even narrowergap, with Lenovo just 0.2 percentage point from HP.
The booming Chinese market has been its main revenue driver,contributing around 42 percent of its total revenue.
A series of deals, including acquiring Germany's Medion andforming a joint venture with Japan's NEC Corp lastyear, as well as its acquisition of IBM Corp's PCbusiness in 2005, also helped Lenovo gain market share.
Its acquisition record has sparked rumours that it may tryto acquire troubled handset makers such as Nokia Oyj and BlackBerry maker RIM, though Lenovo has so fardenied such plans.
The results came before Hong Kong markets opened onThursday.
Lenovo shares have climbed about 20 percent so far thisyear, outpacing rivals such as HP, Dell Inc and AcerInc.
