Sony braces for lowest profit in 4-yrs

Monitoring Desk

TOKYO: Sony Corp (6758.T) expects operating profit to drop at least 30% this financial year to its lowest in four years as the company anticipates a hit to demand for its TVs, cameras and smartphone image sensors from the coronavirus outbreak. Sony has halted production at some plants and experienced supply-chain disruptions as governments around the world imposed lengthy restrictions on movement and business activity to contain the virus.

Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki said the consumer electronics business such as TVs “has been hardest hit right now, but the impact will expand to other businesses as well.”

The electronics and entertainment company reported a 57% fall in operating profit for the January-March quarter to 35.45 billion yen, missing a 73.77 billion yen average of analyst estimates polled by Refinitiv.

The company did not provide precise forecasts for the current year which started in April, but Totoki said current calculations showed that profit was likely to drop “at least about 30%” from 845.46 billion yen in the previous year. The forecast profit of less than 600 billion yen would be the lowest since the year that ended in March 2017, when earthquakes knocked out factories in southern Japan that produce image sensors. (Reuters)