TOKYO: Sony Corp. said Wednesday its consolidated operating profit fell for the first time in three years in fiscal 2019, due to its sluggish game business and poor electronics sales amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The Japanese electronics and entertainment giant posted an operating profit of 845,459 million yen in the year that ended in March, down 5.5 pct from the preceding year.

Sony's group sales fell 4.7 pct to 8,259,885 million yen, and its net profit sank 36.5 pct to 582,191 million yen. The company posted record-high operating and net profits in fiscal 2018.

The pandemic dented the company's operating profit by 68.2 billion yen in the latest reporting year.

In March, Sony suspended operations at a total of three plants in Britain and Malaysia. With the disruption in the electronics supply chain prolonged, Sony has been forced to suspend work to create new movie and music content.

The company did not provide sales and profit forecasts for fiscal 2020, noting that the virus crisis is making it difficult to show rational estimates.
Even if the spread of the virus is brought under control in the first half of the current fiscal year, Sony would see its operating profit fall by about 30 pct year on year, according to the company.
Meanwhile, there will be no impact on the development of its PlayStation 5 video game console, which is expected to be launched in the year-end shopping season for 2020, Sony officials said.
Sony saw its image sensors for smartphone cameras continue performing well in fiscal 2019, but the smartphone market is seen slowing in the near future.
Hiroki Totoki, senior executive vice president of Sony, told an online press conference that sales in fiscal 2020 may level off around the figure in fiscal 2019.
Sony "will postpone as much as possible" its decision for some 20 pct of its planned capital spending worth 700 billion yen on image sensors, he added.

JIJI Press