Sony Projects Record Full-Year Profits

Tokyo, Feb. 5 (Jiji Press)–Sony Group Corp. said on Thursday that it expects to post record sales and profits for the fiscal year ending next month, thanks to strong performance in its music, game and semiconductor businesses. The Japanese company raised its consolidated net profit forecast for the year from 1.05 trillion yen to 1.13 trillion yen. The company also hiked its sales forecast from 12 trillion yen to 12.3 trillion yen and its operating profit forecast from 1.43 trillion yen to 1.54 trillion yen. A weaker yen also benefits Sony. In the music sector, the company recorded a revaluation gain of about 45 billion yen due to the additional acquisition of shares of a U.S. company that owns the copyrights for the popular comic strip “Peanuts,” known for its beloved character Snoopy, to make the U.S. firm a consolidated subsidiary. In the semiconductor sector, image sensors for mobile devices are expected to continue to perform well. At Thursday’s press conference, Sony Group CFO Lin Tao referred to the impact of the memory chip shortage on the PlayStation 5 game console, saying that the company is likely to secure the minimum quantity necessary to meet the year-end demand. In the first three quarters through last December, Sony posted a net profit of 947.7 billion yen, up 12.4 pct from a year before. The result excluded the financial services business as the company spun off its Sony Financial Group Inc. unit last October. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]