Sony Group Profit Jumps on Stronger Game, Movie Earnings — 2nd Update

By Kosaku Narioka

Sony Group reported a rise in fourth-quarter net profit thanks to stronger earnings from its game and movie businesses.

The Japanese entertainment and electronics company said Tuesday that net profit rose 34% from a year earlier to 189.005 billion yen ($1.21 billion) for the three months ended March. That beat the estimate of Y149.71 billion in a poll of analysts by data provider FactSet.

Fourth-quarter revenue climbed 14% to Y3.481 trillion.

Operating profit for its game business more than doubled to Y105.98 billion, and that of its movie business nearly doubled to Y30.67 billion.

For the fiscal year that began in April, Sony Group projected revenue to drop 5.5% to Y12.310 trillion and net profit to decline 4.7% to Y925.00 billion. The company expects weaker revenue and profit from its financial business, which it plans to spin off.

Sony expects operating profit from its game business to rise 6.8% to Y310.00 billion this fiscal year. It sold 20.8 million units of PlayStation 5 in the year ended March, up from 19.1 million units the previous fiscal year.

The videogame industry is struggling to regain its vigor following a pandemic-driven boom a few years ago. Earlier this year, Sony Group said it was laying off about 900 employees from its PlayStation business. Microsoft cut about 8% of its videogaming staff following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October.

Sony expects profit from its movie business to increase 2.0% to Y120.0 billion this fiscal year.

Film unit Sony Pictures and private-equity firm Apollo Global Management have submitted an all-cash $26 billion offer for media and entertainment company Paramount Global, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.

Sony Group said Tuesday that it will buy back up to Y250.0 billion of its shares over the next year and conduct a five-for-one stock split, effective Oct. 1.

Write to Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 14, 2024 04:10 ET (08:10 GMT)

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