TOKYO – Troubled conglomerate, Sony expects to see its electronics businesses recover over the next three years.
At an investor conference Tuesday, it revealed positive projections for four segments up to the 2017 financial year which ends in March 2018.
Sony sees its ‘devices’ segment, which includes its hot-selling image sensors, as making the biggest gains, with a 10 to 12% operating profit margin and a rise in sales to between JPY1.3 trillion ($11 billion) and JPY1.5 trillion ($12.7 billion). By comparison, on Oct. 31 the company forecast a 7.5% margin and JPY890 billion ($7.5 billion) in revenue for the division for the 2014 fiscal year, ending on March 31, 2015.
The ‘games & network services’ division is expected to achieve a 5-6% operating margin by FY 2017, on sales forecast to reach JPY1.4 trillion ($11.8 billion) to JPY1.6 trillion yen ($13.5 billion). This compares with an operating margin of 2.7% on JPY1.29 trillion ($11 billion) in earnings projected for FY 2014.
Conspicuous by its absence was a FY 2017 projection for the troubled ‘mobile communications segment,” which is expected to record an operating loss of JPY204 billion yen ($1.7 billion) for 2014. Sony, however, plans to release a target for this division by March 2015.
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On Nov. 18 Sony held a similar investors meeting for its entertainment business, at which it projected a one-third rise in TV and movie earnings by 2017.
