The appetite for growth is absolutely insatiable at Lenovo.

Two new research reports say Lenovo’s global market share in smartphone sales continues to grow quickly even before its deal for Motorola Mobility closes. Assuming it does close, of course.

But the biggest news for Lenovo this week came in Hong Kong when it sold $1.5 billion bonds. Is Lenovo ready to make more deals beyond the Motorola and IBM server deals?

“Lenovo’s senior management has repeatedly said that if something interesting comes up, they’ll buy it,” analyst Alberto Moel told the South China Post.

Indeed. Chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing reiterated as much in a filing on the Hong Kong stock exchange where shares in the world’s No. 1 PC maker are sold. Funds will be used for the proverbial “corporate purposes, including working capital.”

It also adds: “and to fund any acquisition activities.”

Lenovo already has people working in Washington, D.C. to secure regulatory approval for the $5 billion-plus deals announced in January: The x86 server buy from IBM and the Google Motorola buy.

But even as Lenovo seeks to ingest those (including some 10,000 employees worldwide – 2,000 IBMers of which are based in the Triangle), the company has a lot of cash available. The Post notes that Lenovo reported $3.82 billion in cash and other assets as of Dec. 31 and credit facilities worth another $8.13 billion.

Smartphone Growth Continues

Which brings us to the improving smartphone sales picture.

Lenovo’s executive headquarters in Morrisville received good news from research firm IDC, which reported Wednesday that Lenovo shartphone sales increased a whopping 63 percent in the first quarter over last year. Lenovo shipped 12.9 million smartphones and improved its market share to 4.6 percent from 7.9 million and 3.6 million a year earlier.

The IDC report didn’t break out Motorola shipments separately, but Juniper reported earlier this week that its phones were surging, too.

“Lenovo posted the largest year-over-year increase among the leading vendors, with continued success in Asia/Pacific and a nominal presence elsewhere,” IDC noted.

“This will quickly change once the acquisition of Motorola is completed, thereby giving the company a footprint in markets – including North America and Western Europe – where it has been notably absent.”

By itself, Lenovo ranks barely behind Huawei for third place in market share.

Samsung and Apple saw their shares drop to 30.2 and 15.5 percent from 31.9 and 17.1 percent respectively.

However, China now makes up 40 percent of the smartphone market and iPhones are still being rolled out there. So Lenovo may have a bigger fight on its hands in its primary market.

Competition. Isn’t it grand?

[LENOVO ARCHIVE: Check out nine years of Lenovo stories as reported in WRAL TechWire.]