From left: Lenovo Group Ltd President Rory Read, Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing and Chairman of the Board Liu Chuanzhi show the company's products before announcing its fiscal profit in Hong Kong yesterday.?

Lenovo Group Ltd's net profit in the fiscal fourth quarter ended in March tripled the level from a year ago as the firm reaped the benefits of a booming China business and robust corporate PC sales, the country's No. 1 personal computer maker said.

In the quarter, Lenovo reported a better-than-expected net profit of US$42.13 million against US$12.8 million a year earlier. Its performance beat the forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters for a US$36.7 million profit.

"The momentum in commercial PC demand has gradually picked up, benefiting from the corporate refresh cycle, while consumer PC demand weakened due to a worsening macroeconomics environment and increasing competition from tablet products," Lenovo said in a stock exchange filing.

For the whole year ended in March, Lenovo's net profit soared 112 percent annually to US$273 million.

China was the major revenue source for Lenovo, the world's No. 4 PC maker.

Lenovo China generated a revenue of US$2.2 billion between January and March, a 12.3 percent growth, which accounted for 45 percent of the company's total revenue.

The growth in China came from surging demand in the country's rural areas.