Sony Sees Steep Drop in Q3 Profits

TOKYO: Sony Corporation has reported third-quarter net income attributable to stockholders of 19.6 billion yen ($169 million), which is down 83.7 percent from the year ago’s 120.1 billion yen.

Operating income decreased 54.3 percent year-on-year to 92.4 billion yen ($796 million) from 202.1 billion yen in the previous year, primarily due to the 112.1 billion yen ($962 million) impairment charge of goodwill recorded in the Pictures segment. Sales and operating revenue for Q3 declined 7.1 percent to 2.40 trillion yen ($20.67 billion) from the prior year’s 2.58 trillion yen, mainly due to the impact of foreign exchange rates.

The Pictures segment—which comprises motion pictures, television productions and media networks—saw sales decrease 14.1 percent year-on-year to 225.2 billion yen ($1.9 billion). The decrease in sales on a U.S. dollar basis was due to significantly lower sales for motion pictures, partially offset by significantly higher sales for television productions. The boost in sales for television productions was primarily due to higher SVOD licensing revenues. An operating loss of 106.8 billion yen ($920 million) was recorded, compared to operating income of 20.4 billion yen in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.

Sony has now revised its outlook for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017. The company expects full-year attributable net income of 26 billion yen ($231 million) and operating income of 240 billion yen ($2.1 billion), a downward revision from the prior forecast for attributable net income of 60 billion yen and operating income of 270 billion yen. Sony has raised its full-year outlook for sales and operating revenue to 7.6 trillion yen ($67 billion) from the earlier outlook of 7.4 trillion yen.