Rivals Panasonic Corp and Sharp Corp also reported profits
for April-June versus losses a year ago, while Panasonic joined Sony in
upgrading its forecast as both firms cashed in on growing sales in emerging
markets.
Panasonic unveiled plans for a $5.7 billion share offering
to help finance a buyout of Sanyo Electric and another unit as it seeks to cut
overlap and expand sales of energy and environment related products.
The increased profit targets suggest a road to recovery for
Japanese electronics makers as consumers and companies revive spending.
However, the yen’s persistent strength and tough competition
with South Korean rivals such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics remain
key risks.
Japan’s electronics giants are also keeping a wary eye on
the impact of the debt crisis on European demand, which accounted for more than
25 percent of Sony’s sales last year.
“It (Sony) did well in the April quarter with aggressive
marketing, especially in its TV business, but its growth rate will slow down in
the current quarter because overall TV sales are weakening in line with a
softening global economy,” said Park Young-Joo, an analyst at Woori Investment
and Securities in Seoul.
Sony, the world’s second-largest camera maker after Canon
Inc, reported April-June operating profit of 67 billion yen ($766 million)
versus the consensus for a 13 billion yen loss in a poll of four analysts and a
loss of 25.7 billion yen a year ago.
The Japanese firms’ results were more upbeat than LG
Electronics, which announced a worse-than-expected 90 percent fall in quarterly
profit on Wednesday, hit by poor TV and mobile handset sales.
As well as improving demand for Bravia LCD TVs and Vaio PCs,
sales of Sony’s PlayStation 3 game consoles, which can now be used to play
several 3D games on Sony’s 3D TVs, more than doubled to 2.4 million units.
Sony has also benefited from the aggressive cost cutting
implemented in the last financial year by its Welsh-American chief executive,
Howard Stringer, a former TV newsman and one of the few foreigners to head a
major Japanese company.
“Sony’s results far exceeded market expectations. The main
drivers were stronger demand for electronics products and solid demand from
China and emerging markets like Latin America,” Anita Huang, manager of ING’s
Japan Fund, said.
She said the fund plans to buy more shares of Sony due to
the better-than-expected results.
After Sony scraped into profit for the year to March 2010
largely on the back of income from its financial services division, Chief
Financial Officer Masaru Kato lauded the latest results as a return to the
company’s roots.
“The real driver of our growth should be the products,
services and contents that we offer to customers,” he told a news conference on
Thursday, singling out new hit products such as a lightweight camera with
interchangeable lenses launched last month.
Electronics sales in developing markets are up about 40
percent on a year ago on average, Kato added.
Some analysts said the NEX cameras, which combine
lightweight and compact size with some of the features of professional digital
cameras, such as interchangeable lenses, could help Sony to take a big bite out
of both compact and single-lens reflex markets, potentially pushing Canon off
the top spot.
Stringer has said he believes Sony is well positioned to
take advantage of consumer interest in 3D products, given that it has a
treasure trove of film and gaming content to back up its hardware offerings.
Sony shares rose 0.1 percent ahead of the announcement,
while Sharp lost 1 percent and Panasonic tumbled 7.7 percent in heavy volume in
a fall triggered by an earlier Reuters report of its capital raising plan.
