Leading PC maker Lenovo Group reported its profit in the first half of the year nearly doubled as a result of strong emerging market sales, according to media reports.

During the second quarter, Lenovo’s worldwide PC shipments grew 35.8 percent year-over-year, seven times the PC industry growth rate of five percent worldwide for the same period, company officials said.

The company also announced a shift in senior management; company chairman and founder Liu Chuanzhi stepped down and CEO Yang Yuanqing took on the chairmanship.

Consolidated sales for the second fiscal quarter increased 35.2 percent year-over-year to a record $7.8 billion. The Beijing-based company also recorded its highest-ever worldwide quarterly market share of 13.5 percent, and gained share points in China, mature markets and emerging markets alike, company officials said.

Yuanqing said that in just two quarters, Lenovo has gone from the number four to the second largest PC vendor in the world.

“We achieved balanced growth across all markets, product categories and geographic regions. In China, we continued to extend our lead, while in emerging markets we have been growing more than three times the market growth rate,” Yuanqing said in a statement. “Including the successful integration of both the NEC and Medion businesses in mature markets, we recorded for the first time a turnover exceeding that of the China market. Not only has profitability substantially increased, but also with record market share.”

Net profit for the half-year period was $252 million, or 2.52 U.S. cents per share, up 92 percent from $131 million a year earlier.

Company officials also announced that Chuanzhi, who returned as chairman in February 2009 to help turn the company around successfully after the economic downturn, will become honorary chairman of Lenovo.

Lenovo, which acquired IBM Corp.’s PC unit in 2005, overtook Taiwan’s Acer Group this year to become the third-largest PC vendor, according to International Data Corp.