BEIJING, Dec. 10(Xinhuanet)-- Stephen Ward, who will be the new chief executive of Lenovo Group, said he expected Lenovo to continue a strategy of innovation that would persuade buyers to look at features other than low prices when picking its products.

¡§Like any product in the world, it¡¦s commoditized until someone finds a way to make it better,¡¨ the Wall Street Journal cited him as saying Thursday.

He said he expected Lenovo to make more efforts to sell through resellers and directly to quality-conscious consumers than IBM had, but did not expect the Chinese firm to put IBM brands in retail stores¢w a marketing outlet where IBM lost nearly US$1 billion in 1998 before abandoning the channel.

The new company could not afford¡§a loss of customers to competitors,¡¨ he said.

Ward, now vice senior president of IBM, will take the position at Lenovo upon the Chinese firm¡¦s completion of its deal to buy IBM¡¦s global personal computer(PC) business, which is scheduled in the second quarter of 2005.

Lenovo would receive a US$500 million bridge loan from Goldman Sachs to help finance the IBM deal, Lenovo chairman Liu Chuanzhi said Thursday.

It was also in talks with other financial institutions regarding permanent financing facilities, which it might use instead of the bridge loan, he said.

Under the acquisition deal, Lenovo will pay IBM US$650 million in cash and up to US$600 million in common stake, giving the U.S. company an 18.5 percent stake in Lenovo.

Most of the top executives in IBM¡¦s PC unit will join Lenovo, including the division¡¦s general manager Fran O¡¦Sullivan, who will become chief operating officer.

Lenovo¡¦s current CEO Yang Yuanqing will replace Liu as the group¡¦s chairman when the deal closes.

(Shenzhen Daily-Agencies)