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Japanese electronics and entertainment company reports profits of ¥43bn for the year, following four years of losses
Sony has dragged itself back to profit for the financial year to 31 March, reporting profits of ¥43bn (£280m) following four straight years of red ink. The Japanese electronics and entertainment company's annual loss of ¥457bn the previous year was the worst in its 66-year history.
The Tokyo-based firm expects the recovery to continue, and on Thursday projected a ¥50bn profit for the fiscal year ending March 2014, up 16%.
A weak yen helps Japanese exporters, and the dollar has gained 20% against the yen in recent months. The weak yen is expected to continue in the coming months because of the policies of the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who took office last year.
Sony sank to a ¥255.2bn loss for the January-March period in 2012, slammed by its money-losing TV business and competition from its rivals Apple and Samsung. But in the same period this year Sony recorded a ¥93.9bn profit, with big help from a weaker yen.
Sales for the January-March period rose 8% to ¥1.7 trillion yen, mainly from a favourable currency rate.
Sony's annual earnings bettered its own forecast for a ¥40bn profit, and that of analysts surveyed by FactSet at about ¥33bn.
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.
