Sony Logs Record Profits for April-Sept.

Tokyo, Oct. 30 (Jiji Press)--Sony Corp. <6758> on Tuesday posted record group net and operating profits for April-September thanks to strong performance by its games business. Net profit surged 88.7 pct from a year before to 399,448 million yen, and operating profit jumped 20.1 pct to 434,517 million yen. Both hit a record high for the second consecutive fiscal first-half period. For the full year ending in March 2019, the company expects to achieve record net and operating profits for the second straight year. In the first half, Sony's game operations posted an operating profit of 174.1 billion yen, about 40 pct of the total, amid strong sales of software titles for its PlayStation 4 video game console. Sony plans to increase its capital expenditures for its chip business to 600 billion yen for the three years ending in March 2021, up from its initial plan of 500 billion yen, anticipating solid growth in demand for use in automobiles. The company plans to increase its overall investment for the period by 100 billion yen to 1.1 trillion yen. Sony raised its full-year operating profit projection to 870 billion yen, up 18.4 pct year on year, and its net profit forecast to 705 billion yen, up 43.6 pct. The company plans to take full control of EMI Music Publishing, which holds and manages copyrights on over two million songs, by the end of this calendar year, a move estimated to push up Sony's operating profit by some 110 billion yen. At its struggling handset operations, Sony lowered its smartphone sales target for the current fiscal year to seven million units from nine million units, booking an impairment loss of 16.2 billion yen for the first half. "The competition is severe, and Sony's products aren't appealing enough," Sony Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki said. He said Sony aims to restore profitability in the handset operations in the year ending in March 2021 by cutting costs further. END