Global consumer electronics giant Sony Corporation said a strong yen, sluggish computer game sales and restructuring costs cut its net profit by 23.4% in the year to March.
The Japanese company posted a group net profit of 88.5 billion yen ($816m) in the year to March, down from 115.5 billion yen the previous year. Pre-tax profit fell 41.8% to 144.1 billion yen while overall sales rose 0.3% to 7.50 trillion yen.
The company saw an improvement in the current fiscal year to March 2005, forecasting 100 billion yen in net profit and 160 billion yen in pre-tax profit on sales of 7.55 trillion yen.
The electronics division, which generates about two thirds of Sony's total revenue, was hit by a drop in sales to its own game segment after it had outsourced popular PlayStation2 console production to third parties in China, it said.
The appreciation of the Japanese yen against the US dollar eroded revenues at the company's film and music businesses as dollar-based income was trimmed when converted into yen, it added.
'Sales declined in the game segment due to lower sales of both hardware and software,' Sony said in a statement. 'Restructuring expenses for the fiscal year amounted to 168.1 billion yen, compared to 106.3 billion the previous fiscal year,' it added.
* Major Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corporation said today that its net profit for the year to March rose 55.7% to 28.8 billion yen ($272m), buoyed by demand for audio-visual products. Group recurring profit almost tripled to 145 billion yen while sales dropped 7.4% to 5.58 trillion yen.
