LENOVO Group Ltd is seeking acquisitions to regain the world's third-largest personal-computer seller ranking lost to Acer Inc last year, Chairman Yang Yuanqing said.

"We are not satisfied with our current market share and global ranking," Yang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television broadcast yesterday. "I believe there will be further consolidation in the industry and we hope to seize the opportunity to buy."

Lenovo, the Chinese company that shot to prominence with the 2005 purchase of International Business Machines Corp's PC unit, had its European expansion plans foiled last year when Acer bought Packard Bell BV.

Computer makers such as Fujitsu Siemens Computers (Holding) BV may be a target for Lenovo, said Joseph Ho, a Daiwa Institute of Research analyst.

"It makes sense for Lenovo to want to acquire as it has the financial muscle," said Ho, who rates Lenovo "outperform." "The question is what to acquire and at what price."

Lenovo had cash and equivalents of US$2.2 billion at December 31, according to the latest data from the company, which gets more than half its sales from Asia.

The US$1.25 billion purchase of the IBM business three years ago made the company the world's third-largest computer maker. Lenovo, which moved its headquarters to Raleigh, North Carolina, after the acquisition, lost the position to Acer in the second half of 2007, after the Taipei-based rival bought Packard Bell.

Lenovo's current market value is HK$57 billion (US$7.3 billion), about 6 percent of the size of industry leader Hewlett-Packard Co. Acer is valued at NT$163.1 billion (US$5.4 billion).

Shares of Lenovo rose 5.37 percent to close at HK$6.28 in Hong Kong yesterday. The stock has more than doubled since the IBM purchase, outperforming the benchmark, which gained 40 percent.