Sony posts record annual profit driven by chip, music units

SONY Group on Friday (Apr 28) posted a record annual profit due to strong performance at its music and microchip units, but the company predicted a smaller profit for the year to next March.

Operating profit at the Japanese electronics and entertainment conglomerate came to 1.21 trillion yen (S$12 billion) for the year ended Mar 31, up 0.5 per cent on the year.

For the current business year, Sony expects its operating profit to fall 3.2 per cent to 1.17 trillion yen. That compares with analysts’ average estimate of a 1.275 trillion yen profit, according to Refinitiv data.

Sony, which competes with Xbox maker Microsoft and Switch provider Nintendo, sold 19.1 million units of the PlayStation 5 (PS5) videogame machine in the past business year, up from 11.5 million a year earlier.

Sony struggled to meet PS5 demand earlier in the previous business year due to supply chain problems, but managed to boost console output later as parts supply improved. REUTERS