Sony profit tops estimates on PlayStation, Spotify
An atendees holds a Sony Corp. Playstation controller while playing a video game during the company’s event ahead of the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Monday, June 11, 2018. Sony corralled attendees through different venues as they put their new titles on display, including a remastered version of cult favorite Resident Evil 2 and their event finale Spider-Man. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
INTERNATIONAL – Sony Corp.’s quarterly profit topped analyst expectations thanks to strong sales of PlayStation games and growth in its music business, which also benefited from a one-time gain on share sales of Spotify Technology SA.
Operating profit was 195 billion yen ($1.75 billion) in the June quarter, the Tokyo-based company said Tuesday, compared with analysts’ average projections for 145.4 billion yen. Net income also topped their prediction at 226.5 billion yen; the company raised its fiscal full-year forecast for net income by 20 billion yen to 500 billion yen.
The strong quarter should come as a relief to investors, who were caught flatfooted in April when new Chief Executive Officer Kenichiro Yoshida unveiled a dour full-year forecast, sending shares tumbling. The stock has recovered since then as strong sales of a new God of War game and growth in music streaming reassured shareholders the new boss can probably beat his projections.
“If you look past one-time items and just focus on their core business, it is still growing profits,” Masahiro Wakasugi, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said prior to the release. “How much the new games added to profit growth this quarter is important to gauge the rest of the year.”
Revenue rose 5.1 percent to 1.95 trillion yen, topping the forecast for 1.87 trillion yen. Sony also raised its outlook for sales to 8.6 trillion yen from 8.3 trillion yen, citing higher-than-expected video-game sales.
In April, the company sold about a fifth of its 5.7 percent stake in Spotify when the music streaming giant went public. Sony recorded a one-time gain of 53.9 billion yen from the sale and said its remaining shares have a fair value of 95.3 billion yen. Sony hasn’t said if or when it could sell its remaining holding.
The popularity of first-party title God of War helped Sony in the quarter. Operating profit rose from a year earlier to 83.5 billion yen. During the quarter, the company had few surprises to share at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) and also angered gamers over its lack of cross-platform play for Fortnite. In April, researcher Newzoo predicted that mobile games will account for more than half of the gaming industry’s revenue this year, while consoles will fall to 25 percent.
Streaming continued to grow, with Spotify last week announcing monthly active users had grown to 180 million, topping estimates. That boosted royalties received by Sony, sending operating profit up 28 percent from a year ago to 32.1 billion yen. The unit also got a lift from the on-going popularity of mobile game Fate/Grand Order. Chips: Operating profit fell 47 percent to 29.1 billion yen. Cooling demand for smartphones was the primary driver in Sony’s weaker-than-expected full-year forecast in April. Sony is the largest industry supplier of camera chips to phone makers including Apple Inc and last week unveiled a new chip that quadruples megapixel quality.
– BLOOMBERG
Source: iol.co.za
