Sony Group said today that it is considering splitting part of its financial business as it doubles down on entertainment and image sensors.
Sony said it was considering spinning off Sony Financial Group, which includes life insurance and banking, within the next two to three years, with the goal of listing the business and retaining a stake of just under 20%.
“Given the amount of capital required for this business, it is challenging to balance investments in entertainment with other areas such as image sensors,” Sony Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki said at a strategy briefing.
The group is seeking synergies between its businesses, which include games, music and movies. Sony said HBO’s hit show “The Last of Us” helped popularize the game franchise it’s based on and the music it uses.
The spin-off of Sony Financial would allow the newly public company to retain the Sony brand. Sony said this was made possible by a change in tax rules.
Writing in Smartkarma, analyst Mio Kato of LightStream Research said: “In terms of Sony’s prospects, it doesn’t change anything drastically, but it does make Sony a more pure entertainment company, which the market generally likes. of.”
As of March this year, Sony Group’s financial business revenue fell by 5% to 1.45 trillion yen (currently about 73.95 billion CNY). Operating profit rose 49% to 223.9 billion yen (currently about 11.419 billion CNY), thanks to a one-time gain from real estate sales.
Sony expects the division’s revenue to fall 40 percent due to accounting changes, and profits to fall 20 percent due to the absence of a one-time gain from the previous year.
Sony shares rose 6% in Tokyo trading, a day after the company said it would buy back up to 2.03% of its shares.
