LOS ANGELES — Sony today (Oct 29) unveiled a net profit of $US280 million (S$393 million) for the three months to September, the second quarter of its financial year. That came despite growing losses at its Pictures division.

The corporate-level profit compares with a loss in the comparable period last year, and was achieved on largely flat sales and operating revenues of US$15.8 billion. The corporate level improvement came largely from reduced losses in mobile communications and despite losses at the Pictures division.

The movies and TV division lost ¥187 million in the quarter, down from a loss of less than US$10 million in the same period last year. The division’s revenues were largely unchanged at JPY184 billion when expressed in the Japanese currency, but represented a 14 per cent decrease in US dollar terms.

Sony said that the sales drop was largely due to decreases in home entertainment revenues and lower TV licensing revenues. it blamed the divisional losses on the revenue shortfall and higher worldwide theatrical marketing expenses due to a greater number of significant theatrical releases in the current quarter as compared to the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.

That has led Sony to cut its forecast for the Pictures division’s full year outlook. It is now forecasting sales and revenues of ¥1 trillion for the 12 months to March 2016, compared to a previous forecast of ¥1.02 trillion, and to ¥879 billion last year. It is still forecasting an overall operating profit for the division in the full year, but only ¥35 billion. Where Sony had previously been forecasting an increase to ¥64 billion for the Pictures division’s operating profits, it is now forecasting a fall from last year’s ¥58.5 billion.

Sony cut back on its involvement in the mobile phone handset business last year with a strategic decision to stop competing with the market leaders in mass market products. Revenue dropped by 15% to ¥279 billion (US$2.33 billion), and net losses fell sharply to US$172 million.

For the six months to September corporate level revenues were a little changed ¥3.70 trillion, or US$30.8 billion. Net income for the six months was US$967 million (¥116 billion) compared to a similar sized loss (¥109 billion) at the same stage last year.

The corporate level financial guidance was last revised in July and was left unchanged. For the year to March 2016, Sony is forecasting a 4 per cent sales decrease at ¥7.9 trillion. At the profit level is forecasting a more than US$2 billion turnaround. Net income is forecast at ¥140 billion, compared with a net loss of ¥126 billion in 2014-15. REUTERS/VARIETY.COM