Sony Corp. (6758), Japan’s largest exporter of consumer electronics, unexpectedly reported a third straight annual loss, citing a charge for deferred tax assets.
The net loss was 260 billion yen ($3.2 billion) in the year ended March 31, including a 360 billion yen charge for deferred tax assets, the Tokyo-based company said in a preliminary earnings statement today. That compares with the 76 billion yen profit average of 10 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg in the past 28 days and Sony’s previous forecast for annual profit of 70 billion yen.
The maker of Bravia televisions is struggling to improve earnings even after restarting plants that were disrupted by Japan’s 9-magnitude temblor and ensuing power shortages. The company is trying to fully resume its PlayStation Network and Qriocity online services after an attack by hackers compromised personal information from more than 100 million user accounts.
Operating income, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, increased to about 200 billion yen while revenue declined 0.5 percent to 7.18 trillion yen, Sony said. That compares with the 206 billion yen and 7.2 trillion yen averages of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Sony fell 0.5 percent to close at 2,211 yen in Tokyo trading today before the announcement. The stock has dropped 24 percent this year, more than triple the 7.5 percent decline by Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average.
Source Number 1:
FT.com
Another site chimes in on the situation.
QUOTESony has posted a Y260bn ($3.18bn) net loss for the year ended March 31 due to the impact of Japan’s quake and tsunami and the hacker attacks that forced it to shut down its PlayStation Network, the Japanese electronics company revealed in a preliminary earnings statement Monday.
The company had called a news conference on Monday for 5.30pm local time to announce the revision. Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange are required to inform investors if they believe they will miss earnings targets by 30 per cent or more.
Sony was scheduled to report fourth-quarter and full-year results on Thursday. Analysts had been expecting a Y76bn profit and the company had forecast net income of Y70bn.
Last week Sir Howard Stringer, chief executive, acknowledged that Sony would lose money and customers as a result of the theft of customer information by the hackers, though he did not say how much.
Names, addresses and network passwords belonging to 100m people, including all PSN users, were stolen in the attack.
