Sony returns to profit for first time in five years

By
published

Sale of key assets including the firm's offices in New York and Tokyo helped push the troubled electronics giant back into the black

Sony is back in the black, reporting its first annual profit in five years, but the figures were boosted by sales of key assets.

Net profit was 43bn yen (£280m) for the year to March 31st, as opposed to a 457bn yen loss the previous year. Sony says the yen's recent fall, which makes exports cheaper, boosted sales. Profits are expected to rise to 50bn yen in the current financial year.

As part of the firm's restructuring under new CEO Kazuo Hirai, it sold its US headquarters in New York and also offloaded its Sony City Osaki building in Tokyo. This resulted in gains of around $2.5bn (£1.6bn).

Sony, like many of its rivals, has been hit hard by intense competition in the TV business, with its TV division recording a loss for the last eight years.

By Andy Clough

Follow whathifi on Twitter

Join us on Facebook

Find us on Google+

Andy Clough
Andy Clough

Andy is Global Brand Director of What Hi-Fi? and has been a technology journalist for 30 years. During that time he has covered everything from VHS and Betamax, MiniDisc and DCC to CDi, Laserdisc and 3D TV, and any number of other formats that have come and gone. He loves nothing better than a good old format war. Andy edited several hi-fi and home cinema magazines before relaunching whathifi.com in 2008 and helping turn it into the global success it is today. When not listening to music or watching TV, he spends far too much of his time reading about cars he can't afford to buy.