Another reason for Yang to smile (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)
Lenovo stock closed up 2.1% Wednesday in Hong Kong and have been trading at a five-year peak. Following a 36% run-up in the stock price in 2012, the company's market cap is $10.4 billion . That means Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing is sitting on a big capital gain after investing $404 million in June 2011 in the company's shares. At the time, he said the purchase of a roughly 8% stake in Lenovo was "based on my strong belief in the company's very bright future." His belief wasn't misplaced. Lenovo has been on a tear and investors are taking note. Based on his disclosed shareholding, including unvested stock options, FORBES estimates that Yang's Lenovo stock is now worth $740 million.
On Monday, Gartner reported that Hewlett Packard had retaken the top spot in global PC shipments in the fourth quarter, after ceding its lead to Lenovo. However, Lenovo's quarterly market share for PCs rose to 15.5% despite an overall sales drop and the company is expanding into other consumer electronics, notably tablets and smartphones. Its net profit rose 13% in the third quarter on revenues of $8.6 billion. Yang, aged 48, served as Lenovo's CEO between 2001 and 2005, before being promoted to chairman right around the time that Lenovo purchased IBM's laptop division. He returned to the executive suite in 2009, part of a shakeup at the company that appears to have served it well. Last year, after the company posted a strong 2011 fiscal-year profit, Yang made headlines when he distributed $3 million of his annual bonus to thousands of junior staff. With its core PC market feeling the strain from the popularity of mobile devices, Lenovo has to demonstrate, in China and elsewhere, that it can build and market the right products. If it pulls it off, it may yet become what China has long coveted: a global consumer brand.
