Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corp. (SON.L, SNE) Thursday said it expects profit and sales to increase in the current year, after reporting an annual profit for the fiscal year ended March 31.
For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014, net income attributable to Sony's stockholders are estimated to increase 16.2 percent year-over-year to 50 billion yen.
The maker of Xperia smartphones and Bravia TVs expects operating profit to hold steady at 230 billion yen due to higher sales and improvement of operating results in the electronics businesses, as the previous year recorded sales gains and remeasurement gains from asset sales.
Sales and operating revenue are expected to increase 10.3 percent to 7.50 trillion yen, primarily due to the depreciation of the yen and an increase in sales in the electronics businesses.
For the just concluded year, net income attributable to the company's stockholders was 43.03 billion yen, or $458 billion, in comparison with a loss of 456.66 billion yen in the previous year.
Full-year sales and operating revenue advanced 4.7 percent to 6.80 trillion yen, or $72.35 billion, from 6.49 trillion yen in the prior year. On a constant currency basis, sales improved 2 percent.
Sony attributed the sales increase to the consolidation of Sony Mobile Communications, previously known as Sony Ericsson, as a wholly-owned subsidiary, as well as the favorable impact of foreign exchange rates and an increase in financial services revenue in the Financial Services segment.
However, these positive factors were partially offset by a decrease in unit sales of key electronics products and the negative impact from the sales of the small- and medium-sized display business as well as the chemical products related business.
Operating income was 230.1 billion yen compared to an operating loss of 67.3 billion yen last year. This improvement stemmed from the recording of sale and remeasurement gains associated with the sale of assets as part of Sony's restructuring efforts and a decrease in losses from Televisions.
An improvement in the operating results of the Devices segment, the Financial Services segment and the Pictures segment also boosted results.
Segment-wise, Imaging Products & Solutions or IP&S revenue slid 4.1 percent to 730.4 billion yen and operating income dropped 92 percent, amid a significant decrease in unit sales of compact digital cameras and video cameras.
In Mobile Products & Communications or MP&C segment, sales more than doubled to 1.26 trillion yen, helped by the consolidation of Sony Mobile, partially offset by lower sales of PCs. The business reported an operating loss, compared to a profit last year, primarily due to the inclusion of a 102.3 billion yen remeasurement gain associated with obtaining control of Sony Mobile last year.
Sales decreased over 17 percent in the Devices segment to 848.6 billion yen, while Music sales were almost flat with last year.
Pictures sales increased 11.4 percent to 732.7 billion yen. The division received significantly higher theatrical revenues from the current year's film slate including Skyfall and The Amazing Spider-Man.
Financial services revenue increased 15.6 percent to 1 trillion yen with an 18.5 percent increase in the insurance arm Sony Life.
For the quarter, net income attributable to the company's stockholders was 93.91 billion yen compared to a loss of 255.21 billion yen last year. Sales and operating revenue rose 8.3 percent to 1.73 trillion yen from 1.60 trillion yen in the prior year. The firm recorded gain on sale of securities investments of 42 billion yen in the just concluded quarter.
The stock fell 1.4 percent on Thursday in Tokyo to settle at 1,744 yen.
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