Sony said its bottomline profit dropped 32.8 per cent to 152.1 billion yen ($1.4 billion) for the April-June quarter on sales of 1.93 trillion yen, down 1.4 per cent. KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP
Japanese entertainment giant Sony on Tuesday reported a fall in first-quarter net profit due to one-off factors, with operating profit up as analysts said the firm’s recovery was levelling off.
The PlayStation manufacturer said its bottomline profit dropped 32.8 per cent to 152.1 billion yen ($1.4 billion) for the April-June quarter on sales of 1.93 trillion yen, down 1.4 per cent. But its operating profit rose 18.4 per cent to 230.9 billion yen.
The plunge in net profit reflects in part the firm’s exceptional first quarter results last year, fuelled in part by the sale of a share of its stake in Spotify.
Sony spent years struggling to recover from deep financial trouble, a process that entailed aggressive restructuring, the loss of thousands of jobs and the sale of business units and assets.
“Sony achieved a V-shaped recovery and its growth is now levelling off,” said Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Ace Research Institute in Tokyo.
Sony saw a slowdown in its games and network businesses, including an online service that allows users to enjoy music and video titles via their PlayStation accounts.
Operating profit in that sector fell more than 11 per cent.
Sony has said it expects revenue from this core sector will sag due to a continued fall in game hardware sales, as well as the cost of developing a next-generation console and unfavourable foreign exchange rates.
“PS4, which has long spearheaded Sony’s revival, is now peaking,” said Yasuda.
“Investors are focusing how Sony can smoothly transfer from PS4 to PS5,” he added.
Sony revised its sales forecast down for the fiscal year to March next year to 8.6 trillion yen from an earlier estimate of 8.8 trillion yen.
But it left its full-year net profit forecast unchanged at 500 billion yen, down 45 per cent from the previous fiscal year.
Annual operating profit forecast was also unchanged.
The firm said it saw a slowdown in its electronics and solution sector due to a decline in sales of television sets, smartphones and digital cameras.
But its entertainment sector is expected to remain promising as Spider-Man: Far From Home and Men in Black: International, both released late last month, have captured the box office.
And Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, will hit the screen in late next month.
Sony released the quarterly earnings after the closing bell. Its shares, which jumped more than 3.7 per cent for the past month, ended the session down 0.08 per cent to 5,859 yen.
