Sony turn first profit for five years

 
Staff|Agencies
9 May 2013

Sony has dragged itself back into the black, recording its first annual profit for five years.

The Japanese electronics and entertainment company reported earnings of 43 billion yen (£279.3 million) following four straight years of red ink. Sony's annual loss of 457 billion yen (£3.67 billion) the previous year was the worst in the company's 66 years.

Sony recorded a 93.9 billion yen (£610.1 million) profit in the fourth quarter, with big help from a weaker yen that boosts overseas earnings.

Tokyo-based Sony expects the recovery to continue, and projected Thursday a 50 billion yen (£325 million) profit for the fiscal year through March 2014, up 16 percent.

A weak yen helps Japanese exporters, and the dollar has gained 20 percent against the yen in recent months.

Sony had sunk to a 255.2 billion yen loss for the January-March period in 2012, slammed by its money-losing TV business and competition from rivals Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.

Sales for the January-March period rose 8 percent to 1.7 trillion yen (£10.9 billion), mainly from a favorable currency rate.

Sony's annual earnings bettered its own forecast for a 40 billion yen (£260 million) profit, and that of analysts surveyed by FactSet at about 33 billion yen (£214.3 million).

Sony has been shedding jobs and selling assets and parts of businesses in recent years in an effort to achieve a turnaround. It has lost much of its historical glamour as the maker of the Walkman portable music player and the PlayStation 3 video-game console.

But the cheap yen, which will make Sony products cheaper abroad, is almost certain to work as a big plus.