Sony Q2 bounces back to profit, raises net target

TOKYO: Sony Corp said it moved into the black in the latest quarter, rebounding from a year-ago loss, and raised its full-year net profit target despite waning consumer sentiment, drawing strength from hit products and films. The world's largest consumer electronics maker posted a consolidated net profit of 44.1 billion yen ($354.8 million) in July-September, or 47.89 yen per share, reversing a 13.2 billion yen loss a year earlier.

Operating profit totaled 50.5 billion yen, compared with a 3.4 billion yen loss in the second quarter of the last business year, while revenues inched 0.5 percent higher to 1.79 trillion yen. Several analysts had forecast a second-quarter operating figure of 50-60 billion yen, while corporate research firm Toyo Keizai had projected the figure at 58 billion yen.

"In our electronics division, with strength in audio-video products, a recovery in semiconductors and components, and structural reforms, we are making steady progress in improving profitability," Sony chief executive officer Nobuyuki Idei said in a statement.

For the full year to next March, Sony raised its net profit forecast, issued in April, to 180 billion yen from 150 billion yen, more than 10 times last year's 15.3 billion yen. The company said its net profit received a 36.1 billion yen boost from tax benefits and other effects of absorbing audio-video manufacturing subsidiary Aiwa Co Ltd.

Sony kept its full-year operating profit target unchanged at 280 billion yen, while the revenue forecast, which had been lowered by 300 billion yen in July, was cut further to 7.6 trillion yen, virtually unchanged from the year before.

© Reuters