Lenovo Group Ltd, China's biggest personal computer maker, is eyeing to buy Positivo Informatica SA, Brazil's biggest PC manufacturer, as it moves to battle slowing sales with growth opportunities in faster-growing emerging and consumer markets, Shanghai Daily learned yesterday.

Lenovo was in preliminary talks about potential investments and possible acquisitions with independent third parties. But it hasn't reached an agreement, Chairman Yang Yuanqing said in a statement filed to Hong Kong's stock exchange yesterday.

"The company seeks potential investments and will grasp any opportunity to expand," Zhu Huang, Lenovo's spokesman, said. "And we put high value on emerging markets."

Profit for the third quarter ended September 30 dived 78 percent on an annual basis due to the global economic slowdown and the firm lost market share in the United States, which saw less corporate and retail spending.

But the emerging markets offered some light at the end of a dark tunnel. In the third quarter, exports to the Americas shed 4 percent and in Asia Pacific outside China they fell 10 percent. But sales in China rose 11 percent to US$1.9 billion.

An acquisition in Brazil would help the world's No. 4 PC manufacturer expand in faster-growing merging markets.

(Shanghai Daily December 12, 2008)