TOKYO, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Sony Corp. announced Friday its group net profit had dropped 50.4 percent from the previous year.
Sony said for the past year to March 31, it had posted a group net profit of 73.29 billion yen (658 million U.S. dollars), dropping 50.4 percent from the previous year.
The Tokyo-based maker also said that its operating profit was 288.70 billion yen, declining 1.9 percent, on sales of 7.60 trillion yen, a drop of 6.2 percent.
The maker of PlayStation game consoles and Bravia LCD TVs, attributed losses to the earthquakes in southwestern Japan in April last year.
The quakes forced Sony to shutter some of its operations at a plant in quake-hit Kumamoto Prefecture.
Looking ahead, Sony said it expects its operating profit to jump 73.2 percent this year owing to brisk semiconductor sales and increased revenue from its gaming sector.
Sony said it also projects a group operating profit of 500 billion yen for the business year through March 2018 and expects its group net profit to be 255 billion yen, on sales of 8 trillion yen, which is an increase of 5.2 percent.
