The shares of Lenovo Group, China's biggest personal computer maker, were suspended yesterday in the Hong Kong market over speculation of major restructuring amid flagging sales in the global financial crisis.

Lenovo will merge Asia and China operations into a new operation called Asia and Russia. The company will also appoint senior vice president Chen Shaopeng to head it, media reported yesterday. Lenovo said its shares were suspended pending the release of price-sensitive information and it would release a statement this morning.

Guo Tongyan, Lenovo's Beijing-based spokesman, declined to comment but he denied another report saying that Lenovo had to lay off 200 people in its Beijing headquarters.

Lenovo Asia now accounts for 11 percent of the company's total revenue.

"All firms are influenced by the global financial crisis, even it's in China, except the telecommunications sector (as 3G boosts)," said IDC in a statement yesterday.

Lenovo is the world's fourth-biggest PC maker, behind Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer.

Lenovo, which acquired IBM's PC business for US$1.25 billion, saw its share of the global PC market drop to 7.4 percent in the third quarter of last year from 8 percent a year earlier, as it battled aggressive smaller rivals like Asustek and Toshiba, analysts said.

(Shanghai Daily January 8, 2009)