Sony posts record profits on brisk electronic sales

TOKYO: Japan's Sony Corp on Thursday posted record high second quarter net profits, helped by brisk sales of digital cameras and laptop computers which offset heavy losses from the PlayStation 3.

The electronics giant's earnings showed a sharp improvement from a year ago when it booked large costs to cover recalls of millions of computer batteries.

Sony said its net profit jumped to 73.7 billion yen (646.5 million dollars) in the three months to September from 1.7 billion a year earlier, while revenue increased by 12.3 percent to 2.08 trillion yen. The company said it had swung to an operating profit of 90.5 billion yen from a year-earlier loss of 20.8 billion.

The semiconductor unit saw increased profits from chips made for the PS3 while the absence of last year's one-off costs linked to the battery recalls also boosted the group's bottom line, said chief financial officer Nobuyuki Oneda.

"Brisk sales of our Vaio line of PCs and Cyber-shot digital cameras also largely contributed to the increased sales and profits," he said.

For the fiscal first half as a whole Sony's net earnings more than quadrupled to a record 140.17 billion yen. In the second quarter alone the mainstay electronics enjoyed a 20.7 percent increase in sales while operating profit skyrocketed to 106.9 billion yen from 8.0 billion.

"For the second half we will be launching full high definition (TV) models and we expect they will be well received in the market," Oneda said.

But losses at the game division more than doubled to 96.7 billion yen as the company sold 1.31 million PS3s for less than the production price. Sony is facing fierce competition in the game console market from rival Nintendo, which earlier reported a 144 percent leap in first-half net profit.

Nintendo can barely keep up with demand for the Wii, which is known for its innovative motion-sensitive controller and is aimed at customers who normally would not play video games. Oneda said that Sony hopes to make a profit in the game unit in the next financial year after absorbing the console's huge developments costs.

Property divestments also contributed to the profit surge. Sony upgraded its full-year outlook, predicting a 527 percent increase in operating profit to 450 billion yen, against a previous target of 440 billion.

Net earnings are now forecast to jump 161 percent to 330 billion yen in the 12 months to March, compared with an earlier projection of 320 billion.

Sony has been streamlining to focus on its core electronics unit. Last week it said it would sell the production lines for the powerful computer chip at the heart of the PS3 to rival Toshiba for a reported one billion dollars.

Sony has also axed thousands of jobs since Howard Stringer, a Welsh-born US citizen, took over in 2005 as the iconic Japanese company's first foreign boss.