Lenovo sells property venture to Sunac for $236 million, raises fund to drive growth

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Lenovo Group Ltd said on Thursday it would sell all its 49 percent stake in a China property joint venture to Sunac China Holdings Ltd (1918.HK) for 1.62 billion yuan ($235.5 million), raising capital to fund operations and investments.

A pre-tax gain of about HK$1.7 billion ($218.5 million) is estimated from sale of the stake in Chengdu Lian Chuang Rong Jin Investment Ltd, which is involved in residential, commercial, and office property development in China's Hefei and Wuhan, Lenovo said in a filing to the Hong Kong bourse.

"The disposal will provide general working capital to finance the company's operations and investments in driving the company's long term competitiveness and profitable growth," chairman Yang Yuanqing said in the statement.

Yang had said in February that Lenovo's mobile division was on track to return to profit by December at the earliest, helped by strong growth in overseas markets after the firm posted a 67 percent drop in quarterly earnings. [nL4N1G11WS]

($1 = 6.8794 Chinese yuan renminbi)

($1 = 7.7628 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Michael Perry)