Sony raises profit outlooks on solid demand for imaging sensors

Source: Xinhua | 2020-02-05

Sony Corp. on Tuesday announced that it had raised both its group net and operating profits for the current business year through March.

The Tokyo-based company said that raising its profit outlooks was based on solid demand for its imaging sensors that are used in, among other portable devices, smartphone cameras.

Raising its outlook for its group net and operating profits, Sony elaborated, was on expectations that growing demand for its imaging sensors looking ahead, would offset a drop in sales of its TVs, digital cameras and game software.

Sony said it now forecasts a net profit of 590 billion yen (5.41 billion U.S. dollars), which is 50 billion yen (458.55 million U.S. dollars) yen higher than its previous forecast.

The multinational conglomerate also said it now expects its operating profit to rise by 40 billion yen (366.84 million U.S. dollars) to 880 billion yen (8.07 billion U.S. dollars).

The consumer electronics and entertainment behemoth also upwardly revised its sales forecast from 8.40 trillion yen to 8.50 trillion yen (77.95 billion U.S. dollars).

Sony added that for the nine months through December, however, its net profit declined 31.2 percent to 569.55 billion yen (5.22 billion U.S. dollars) and its operating profit shed 0.2 percent to 810.01 billion yen (7.42 billion U.S. dollars).

In the same period, Sony, the world's largest maker of image sensors accounting for about half of the global market, said its sales totaled 6.51 trillion yen (59.68 billion U.S. dollars), edging down 0.4 percent.