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Cameras, yen boost Sony's Q1 net

A Japanese girl makes a face as she looks at a Sony Bravia TV displayed in a Tokyo showroom yesterday. Sony Corp said yesterday that its second quarter net profit doubled from a year earlier, pushed by strong sales of Bravia TVs and digital cameras. PHOTO: EPA

Sony Corp -- the world's second-biggest consumer electronics maker -- reported that first-quarter profit doubled as sales of Cyber-shot cameras and Bravia televisions were boosted by a weaker yen.

Net income rose to ?66.5 billion (US$552 million), or ?63.14 per share, in the first quarter ended June 30, from ?32.3 billion, or ?30.75, a year earlier, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement yesterday.

Sales increased 13 percent to ?1.98 trillion from ?1.74 trillion.

A decline in the yen boosted overseas profit from Cyber-shot and Handycam cameras, countering a wider loss at the PlayStation games unit.

Chief executive officer Howard Stringer plans to raise Sony's operating profit margin to 5 percent this fiscal year, catching up with larger rival Matsushita Electric Industrial Co's 5.05 percent.

Shares of Sony rose 1.1 percent to ?6,350 in Tokyo yesterday. The results were announced after the market closed.

The stock has gained 25 percent this year, compared with a 2.8 percent advance in the Nikkei 225 Stock Average.

Shares of Nintendo Co, meanwhile, rose to a record, bringing the company's market value to US$73 billion, after the maker of the top-selling Wii console raised its earnings forecast on demand for the console and game titles.

Nintendo added 8.8 percent, or the exchange-imposed limit of ?5,000, to ?61,800 at the 3pm close of the Osaka Securities Exchange, valuing the Kyoto-based company at ?8.76 trillion.

That exceeds Sony's value of ?6.37 trillion by about 38 percent.

The company, whose Wii console outsells Sony's PlayStation 3, yesterday raised its net income forecast by 41 percent to ?245 billion for this fiscal year.

More game titles and a cheaper price than Sony's PlayStation 3 may help Nintendo reach an increased sales target of 16.5 million Wii players this year.

Tokyo-based Sony forecasts shipments of 11 million PlayStation 3s.

"With the popularity of the Wii and the launch of a new Pokemon game title in Europe on July 27, we expect sales to remain strong for the rest of the year," Atsuko Kaneko, a games analyst at UBS Securities Japan Ltd, wrote in a report dated yesterday.

She kept her "buy" rating on the stock, and raised the 12-month share price target to ?63,000 from ?47,000.
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