Sony Reports Record Profits on Sales on Image Sensors

Japan's Sony on Tuesday reported its highest-ever first-quarter operating profit, taking the electronics giant one step toward its highest annual profit in two decades on the back of robust sales of image sensors.

In a vote of confidence for Sony's turnaround under Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai, the firm's shares have risen by around 40 percent this year to nine-year highs.

The box-office success of its Spider-Man: Homecoming (Review) film has also fuelled hopes of a rise in earnings for Sony's pictures business, which is working through a restructuring plan.

Profit increased 2.8 times to JPY 157.61 billion ($1.43 billion or roughly Rs. 9,164 crores) in April-June, exceeding the previous first-quarter record of JPY 121.3 billion set in 2007.

The result compared with a Thomson Reuters Starmine SmartEstimate of JPY 129.14 billion drawn from 10 analyst views.

The profit surge comes mainly as Sony's image sensor business returned to stability having recovered from earthquake damage sustained a year ago, the company said.

Sony's semiconductor division, which includes image sensors, posted an operating profit of 55.4 billion yen, reversing the year-earlier loss of JPY 43.5 billion, as operations at a key plant fully resumed to meet brisk demand for image sensors for smartphones.

The consumer electronics business was also profitable as it focused on high-end television sets and smartphones without seeking to increase in scale.

Together, strong performance across Sony's divisions is pushing profit to golden-era levels. Nevertheless, analysts said the firm is yet to find long-term drivers of growth.

With the future in mind, Sony is using its newly recovered financial strength to venture into acquisitions. On Monday, it said it had bought most of the distributor of the English-language versions of Dragon Ball Z and One Piece animations.

The firm maintained its profit forecast of JPY 500 billion for the year ending March.

While that is below the market's average forecast of JPY 562.19 billion, it would still be the highest since the company made JPY 526 billion in the year ended March 1998, when it enjoyed strong sales of its first PlayStation games console and other electronics. It also benefited from box-office hit Men in Black.

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