Sony posts quarterly loss, delays forecast

SONY reported a fourth-quarter loss after booking a charge against its chip business and delayed giving a full-year forecast to assess damage from an earthquake that shut its main plant for camera sensors.

The net loss was ¥88.3 billion (R11.4bn) in the three months ended March, the Tokyo-based company said yesterday. Sony, which also recorded its first full-year profit in three years, will probably see annual net income in the current fiscal year rise to ¥212.2bn, according to the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Slowing demand for smartphones has hurt shipments of image sensors, a business that has helped to bolster profits as chief executive Kazuo Hirai shifts the company away from consumer electronics.

Sony will have to generate more of its earnings from PlayStation 4 gaming consoles, streaming services for its 50 million online users, as well as movies and music.

“Hirai’s first three years as a president were about restructuring,” chief financial officer Kenichiro Yoshida said after the earnings announcement. “The next phase will be seizing opportunity.”

While Sony didn’t release projections for the whole company, it issued forecasts for some divisions. Operating income in pictures will rise 12 percent to ¥43bn, while music earnings will drop 28 percent and profit from financial services will decline about 4 percent to ¥150bn. The company will give a full outlook on May 24.

Shares of Sony declined 2.1 percent to ¥2 778 at the close in Tokyo before earnings were released. The stock is down 7.5 percent this year, compared with a 13 percent decline in the Topix index.

Sony’s games and network services business reported a ¥5.1bn profit in the quarter. – Bloomberg KENYA Airways said yesterday that it was experiencing unspecified disruption due to a strike by its pilots despite an agreement reached a day earlier to defer the strike notice until June 1. The Kenya Airline Pilots Association (Kalpa) issued a two-day notice to the carrier on Tuesday saying its members would stop flying planes until Kenya Airways chief executive Mbuvi Ngunze resigned over what it called “questionable” turnaround measures. At midday Kenyan time, when the strike was supposed to start, dozens of Kenya Airways pilots were in a meeting with James Macharia, the Transport Minister, and Dennis Awori, the chairman of the board of Kenya Airways, a Reuters reporter covering the event said. – Reuters

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