Lenovo Group, the world's third-largest personal computer maker, said Wednesday its annual net income soared 625 percent for the year through March on stronger sales.

Profits jumped to 161 million U.S. dollars, or 1.87 U.S. cent per share in its latest fiscal year, up from 22 million U.S dollars in the previous fiscal year, said the company.

Its annual sales rose 10 percent year-on-year to 14.6 billion U.S. dollars, the largest computer maker on the Chinese mainland said, adding the sales jumped nine percent to 3.4 billion U.S. dollars in the fourth quarter ending on March 31.

The company said its computer shipments grew 17 percent in the fourth quarter, six percentage points higher than the average market performance.

It said its Americas businesses went into the black in the quarter, meaning that all of its global regions were profitable for the first time.

Lenovo, which bought the PC business of IBM in 2004, said its sales in Americas reached 997 billion U.S. dollars in the fourth quarter, accounting 29 percent of all its sales.

Its personal computer shipments in Europe, Middle East and Africa climbed 14 percent from a year earlier in the fourth quarter, and its total sales in these regions hit 731 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 21 percent of Lenovo's fourth quarter sales.

CEO William J. Amelio said Lenovo will further improve its global supply chain and the competitiveness of desktop computers so as to boost its market shares.

Mary Ma, Lenovo's chief financial officer and a senior vice president, retired on Wednesday. Huang Weiming, 49, a former board of director at the computer maker, was appointed new chief financial officer.