Sony says annual profits almost triple to hit record

TOKYO: Japan's Sony Corp. said Wednesday its annual net profit almost tripled to hit a record high helped by brisk sales of electronic goods, but it forecast a 21.5 percent drop in the current financial year.

The electronics icon, which is recovering from a difficult past few years, said it was enjoying strong demand for computers and digital cameras.

The games division narrowed its losses but remained stuck in the red as the PlayStation 3 video game console faced tough competition from Nintendo's Wii.

Net profits came to 369.44 billion yen (3.53 billion dollars) in the year to March, ahead of the company's own forecast, a Sony statement said.

Operating profit surged more than five-fold to 374.48 billion yen as revenue increased by 6.9 percent to an all-time high of 8.87 trillion yen.

For the current year to March, Sony forecast a smaller net profit of 290 billion yen, partly due to a stronger yen and reduced gains from assets sales.