Sony Group Lists $9.5 Billion Financial Business to Focus on Entertainment

By Kosaku Narioka

Sony Group has listed shares of its financial business, valued at about $9.5 billion, in a bid to focus on its game and other entertainment businesses.

Shares of Sony Financial Group were listed in Tokyo Monday and the Japanese entertainment and electronics giant said that a planned spinoff would take effect on Wednesday.

Sony Group plans to distribute about 84% of the shares in its wholly owned financial unit to its shareholders as dividends in kind. No shares of the financial business were offered to the public ahead of the listing.

Sony has spent billions of dollars on acquisitions to boost its entertainment content in recent years. In July, Sony said it planned to acquire a stake valued at about $460 million in Bandai Namco Holdings, known for popular videogames such as "Pac-Man," to broaden their collaboration.

Sony in August raised its full-year operating profit forecast for its game business, after the segment more than doubled earnings in the three months ended June thanks to higher income from network services and third-party software titles. Quarterly operating profit from its music and movie businesses also increased.

For the quarter ended June, Sony Financial booked a net loss on lower revenue. For the fiscal year ending March 2026, the insurance and online-banking business expects net profit will increase 4.1% to 82.00 billion yen, equivalent to $548 million.

Sony Financial shares were recently at Y198.5 after opening at Y205.0. The company's market capitalization was about Y1.419 trillion, given its 7.15 billion shares outstanding.

Sony Financial plans to buy back up to Y100 billion of its own shares by Aug. 8 2026, partly to improve its capital efficiency.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 29, 2025 01:10 ET (05:10 GMT)