Lenovo Mobile Communication Technology Ltd, a leader in domestic mobile phone makers, will go public soon, said John Zhao, chief executive officer (CEO) of Hony Capital, a domestic private equity firm that bought the firm not long ago from Lenovo Group, the China Business News reported yesterday.

"It's definite that Lenovo Mobile will list, and in addition, the listing will occur soon," said Zhao, declining to comment on the listing places or timetable.

Lenovo Mobile will increase its research and development investment proportion and seek a more "stylish" trend in product design, according to Lu Yan, CEO of the firm.

Lu added that the new management team expected to restore the company to profitability by the end of this year.

Lenovo Group's financial reports show Lenovo Mobile revenue slipped to $108 million in 2007, with a 31 percent drop in sales, Lu said.

In February this year, Lenovo Group said it will spin off Lenovo Mobile, its handset business unit, for $100 million to boost profitability.

Compared with its PC business, Lenovo does not have the core competitiveness for making mobile phones and its handset business has long been limited in the Chinese market, according to Simon Ye, an analyst at the research firm Gartner.

Although the company is the fourth player in China's mobile phone market after Nokia, Motorola and Samsung, and has been successful in China's fourth- to sixth-tier cities in recent years, its shipments fell dramatically after industry giants like Nokia and Motorola forayed into China's rural areas.

"At present, several large brands dominate the market," Liu Chuanzhi, president of Legend Holdings Ltd, parent of Lenovo Grop, said yesterday.

Lenovo handsets control approximately seven percent in the Chinese market. Liu Zhijun, former CEO of Lenovo Mobile, didn't manage to reach his target of boosting that proportion to 10 percent.

"Market share is not a top priority for Lenovo Mobile. Its primary goal is to "ensure profit," Lu said.

China had 565 million mobile phone users by the end of February, up from 556 million in January and 547 million in December, the Ministry of Information Industry said.

China was expected to have more than 600 million mobile phone subscribers by 2010, or about 46 percent of its population, according to the government.

(Chinadaily.com.cn April 18, 2008)