Lenovo expects IBM, Mobility deals to be completed by year end

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Proposed purchases by China's Lenovo Group Ltd of IBM Corp's low-end server unit and Google Inc's Motorola Mobility business should be completed by year-end, Lenovo Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing said on Wednesday. The deals are currently undergoing approval by U.S. and Chinese regulators. "Both deals are under the approval process in the two countries and they are progressing," Yang said at Lenovo's annual general meeting in Hong Kong. "We hope to complete the two deals by year-end," he said. "The U.S. government...and U.S. Army are all our clients. There has been no issue and we will keep this tradition." Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the $2.3 billion IBM deal was in limbo while the U.S. government investigated national security issues. The January announcement for the acquisition came nearly a decade after Lenovo bought IBM's money-losing ThinkPad business for $1.75 billion, which had also faced scrutiny. Tensions between the United States and China over cybersecurity issues have reached new highs since the U.S. Department of Justice charged five Chinese military officials with hacking the systems of U.S. companies to steal trade secrets in May. China denies the charges and has in turn accused Washington of massive cyberspying. (Reporting by Clare Jim; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Paul Tait and Matt Driskill)