Japan’s Sony more than doubles net loss forecast

TOKYO— Japanese entertainment giant Sony on Thursday more than doubled its full-year net loss forecast to $2.9 billion, one day after announcing that its president and CEO Howard Stringer would step aside.

The firm said it was expecting a net loss of 220 billion yen ($2.9 billion) for the year to March, up from 90 billion yen previously, in what will be its fourth consecutive year of losses.

Sony also announced a net loss of 201.45 billion yen for the nine months to December, having made a profit of 129.22 billion yen in the corresponding period in 2010.

Sony blamed difficult trading conditions and the high yen, among other factors, for a third-quarter net loss of 159.00 billion yen, which reversed a net profit of 72.3 billion yen in the previous year.

“Consolidated sales decreased significantly year-on-year primarily due to the impact of the floods in Thailand, deterioration in market conditions in developed countries, and unfavourable foreign exchange rates,” it said.

For the nine-month period, at the operating level Sony made a loss of 65.86 billion yen against a previous profit of 273.2 billion yen, and saw sales decline 12.6 percent to 4.89 trillion yen.

It forecast a full-year operating loss of 95 billion yen, having earlier projected a profit of 20 billion yen, on forecasted sales of 6.4 trillion yen, down from 6.5 trillion yen.