Sony sees record $6.4 b loss on tax hit

Reuters: Japan’s Sony Corp flagged a record $6.4 billion annual net loss, double an earlier forecast and a fourth straight year of red ink, as it writes off deferred tax credits, heaping more pressure on its new CEO to turn around the giant electronics company.

Sony, which plans to cut 10,000 jobs - about 6 percent of its global workforce - according to media reports this week, has been hard hit by weak demand for its televisions and overtaken by more innovative gadget rivals such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.

To ease investor concerns over its deteriorating bottom line, Sony forecast it would bounce back in the current year to the end of March 2013 with an operating profit of 180 billion yen ($2.2 billion).

In a sign that Sony’s woes are industry-wide among Japan’s consumer electronics companies, LCD TV maker Sharp Corp on Tuesday also raised its full-year net loss forecast to 380 billion yen ($4.67 billion) from 290 billion yen.

Kazuo Hirai, who took over as Sony’s CEO this month, has said he was prepared to take “painful steps” to revive the company, insisting he would not hesitate to scale back or withdraw from businesses he deemed uncompetitive. He will lay out his revival strategy in more detail at a briefing scheduled for Thursday.

The Sony veteran, known for reviving the PlayStation gaming operations through aggressive cost cutting, has promised to get the struggling TV business - which has lost $10 billion alone in 10 years - back on its feet within two years.

“There have been several reasons for our poor results,” Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato said at a news briefing in Tokyo on Tuesday, noting a strong yen and poor demand.

Asked whether the ballooning losses would cause heads to roll among Sony executives, Kato said: “We are aiming for a rebound and for this we have made management changes.”

Sony securities listed in the United States fell 9 percent, making it the biggest percentage loser on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, while shares in Germany closed about 9 percent lower. In Tokyo, Sony shares closed down 3.5 percent ahead of the announcement, the biggest one-day drop in three weeks in a flat market. In a fourth revision to its annual estimates, Sony forecast a 520 billion yen ($6.4 billion) net loss for the year to end-March 2012. In February it had forecast an annual net loss of 220 billion yen. The annual results are due on May 21.

The additional loss is from writing off 300 billion yen of deferred tax assets primarily in the United States - credits built up to use against future taxable profits, but which have been written off due to the company’s consistent losses.



The company maintained its February forecast for a 95 billion yen annual operating loss.

“To bring Sony back, Hirai needs to develop personnel and platforms that create competitive and innovative products, but a lot of talent left under early retirement plans,” said Tetsuru Ii, president of Commons Asset Management, who oversees about 2.7 billion yen worth of assets and does not hold Sony stock.

“The old Sony culture would only allow it to make things that were the best globally. Under that logic, does it make sense to continue its TV business, when it’s not even the market leader in Japan?”



Kato, who would not confirm the reports of job losses other than to note there would be cuts in a chemical business and small LCD unit that are being hived off, said Sony had no plans to raise money through a share offering or other equity finance.



“We can improve shareholder equity in several ways, including bolstering cash flow or selling assets,” he told reporters. “Equity finance is also an option, but at this moment we have no concrete plan to do so.”



Assuming Sony’s assets are still valued at 12.9 trillion yen, the revised loss will push shareholder equity to 1.9 trillion yen, or a ratio of 15 percent, down from 17.2 percent at the end of 2011.