Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), the world’s biggest maker of personal computers, said chief executive officer Yang Yuanqing (楊元慶) will share his bonus with employees for a second straight year after achieving record shipments and sales.
A pool of 10,000 workers will get payments this month to recognize their contributions, senior vice president of human resources Gina Qiao (喬健) said in a memo to some workers.
The memo was confirmed by spokesman Jeffrey Shafer, who said the total payment will be about US$3.25 million.
Lenovo posted revenue of US$34 billion and PC shipments of 52.4 million units in the 12 months ending on March 31 as the company gained market share and expanded sales of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets.
The 48-year-old Yang, who gave US$3 million from his bonus a year earlier, led the company to the top spot in the June quarter as it overtook Hewlett-Packard Co.
“This is quite rare, especially for a chairman of a Chinese company, to use his personal money as a bonus to reward employees,” Barclays PLC managing director Kirk Yang (楊應超) said.
Lenovo, which has headquarters in Beijing and Morrisville, North Carolina, rose 0.4 percent to HK$7.53 at 2:56pm yesterday in Hong Kong. The stock has climbed 7.3 percent this year, while the territory’s Hang Seng Index has dropped 2.4 percent.
“This payment is personally funded by Yuanqing,” Qiao said in the memo. “He believes that he has the responsibility as an owner of the company, and the opportunity as our leader, to ensure all of our employees understand the impact they have on building Lenovo.”
Yang’s award will be made to Lenovo staff in 20 countries, while about 85 percent of recipients are in China, Shafer said.
Yang spends time in both the Beijing and Morrisville offices, the spokesman said last year.
The average payment of about US$325 is almost equal to a month’s pay for a typical city worker in China.
The average annual wage of urban workers at private companies last year was 28,752 yuan (US$4,700), the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics said in May.
Yang was paid US$14.6 million last year, including a bonus of US$4.23 million and long-term incentive awards of US$8.94 million, according to the company’s annual report.
Yang holds about 744 million shares of Lenovo, or 7.1 percent of the company’s outstanding stock, as of the end of March, the report said.
Other executives to share their bonus include Oleg Deripaska of the world’s largest aluminum producer United Co Rusal, who gave his US$3 million bonus for last year to 120 employees, United Press International reported in July.
Simon Wolfson of Next PLC, the British clothing retailer, awarded his bonus of about US$3.7 million to 19,400 staff, the Telegraph reported in April.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
AVIATION: Despite production issues in the US, the Taoyuan-based airline expects to receive 24 passenger planes on schedule, while one freight plane is delayed The ongoing strike at Boeing Co has had only a minor impact on China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), although the delivery of a new cargo jet might be postponed, CAL chairman Hsieh Su-chien (謝世謙) said on Saturday. The 24 Boeing 787-9 passenger aircraft on order would be delivered on schedule from next year to 2028, while one 777F freight aircraft would be delayed, Hsieh told reporters at a company event. Boeing, which announced a decision on Friday to cut 17,000 jobs — about one-tenth of its workforce — is facing a strike by 33,000 US west coast workers that has halted production
AI AIM: The chipmaker wants joint research and development programs with the Czech Republic, and the government is considering supporting investments in a Czech location Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is planning to build more plants in Europe with a focus on the market for artificial intelligence (AI) chips as the chipmaker expands its global footprint, a senior Taiwanese official said. “They have started construction of the first fab in Dresden; they are already planning the next few fabs in the future for different market sectors as well,” National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Minister Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文) told Bloomberg TV in an interview that aired yesterday. Wu did not specify a timeline for TSMC’s further expansion in Europe. TSMC in an e-mailed statement said it
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
RSS