Japanese electronics maker Sony has issued a revised forecast to the one it released in February, lowering it to a net loss of £1.97bn in its end-of-year results.
Sony said in a statement, "With regards to the financial results for the fiscal year ended March 2011 that we plan to announce this coming May 26th, we have made significant revisions to our February results forecast and would like to address these, in accordance with Tokyo Stock Exchange timely disclosure requirements."
Sony is set to release its full-year numbers on 26 May. In February, the group had forecast that it would post JPY70bn ($85m) profit.
Subsequently, its operations were first hurt by the devastating earthquake that hit Japan on 11 March and then it became a victim of one of Web world’s biggest hacks in April.
However, the group said that the prime reason for the significant dip in forecast was tax charges. It said £2.7bn of deferred tax assets in Japan had to be written off due to US tax legislation.
Sony said, "According to US GAAP, we are required to record a valuation allowance for deferred tax assets that belong to Sony Corporation – on an unconsolidated stand-alone basis – and its consolidated tax filing group subsidiaries in Japan. This valuation allowance is triggered primarily by the negative impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake. It is, however, a non-cash charge and is going to have no impact either on our consolidated operating income or on our cash flow."
Sony also said that the costs incurred due to the earthquake and sales impact due to the disaster is expected to be £167m, while the PlayStation Network hack could cost the company £106m.
However, the company said that their consolidated sales and operating income are expected to remain in-line with the February forecast.
