from marketwatch

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sony-ups-fiscal-year-earnings-view-on-weaker-yen-2013-04-25

TOKYO--Japanese electronics firm Sony Corp. said it doubled its profit outlook for the past business year ended in March, aided by a weaker yen, asset sales and a rebounding stock market that helped its life insurance business.

Sony said it now expects a net profit of Y40 billion ($400 million) for the past fiscal year versus a February estimate of Y20 billion. It also raised its operating profit outlook to Y230 billion from an earlier Y130 billion, while lifting its sales estimate to Y6.8 trillion from Y6.6 trillion.

The company is slated to announce its official earnings figures for the past fiscal year May 9.

Sony cited a number of reasons for the improved outlook. It aggressively sold assets during its fiscal fourth quarter, including its U.S. headquarters building in New York, a portion of its shares in online medical service provider M3 Inc., and Tokyo office buildings.

Sony said the weak yen was another positive factor. The company had assumed an average foreign exchange rate for the quarter of Y88 to the U.S. dollar and Y115 to the euro. The actual rates turned out to be Y92.4 to the dollar Y121.9 to the euro.

A weaker yen increases the value of overseas revenue when repatriated back into yen while improve the profitability of products made in Japan.

The company's life insurance arm benefited from a strong stock market that lifted its investment performance in the fourth quarter.

The thing that jumps at me is the $200 million dollars/200 billion yen extra in revenue, dont know where that is coming from. Also the yen rates for the company still seem low even accounting for the length of the full year (yen is currently 99 per dollar 130 per euro).

Did the Xperia Z do better than expected or something?

I think so, we will get more details out on the 9th but i want to say that its from that group, or increased digital music/movie sales.  Having top line revenue growth is always important as its an indication of your products selling, which is what Sony needs at the moment.

It's been a decent end of fiscal year for Sony. The positive press on the PS4 announcement and the great placement the Xperia Z had when it entered the market has been riding well on the Yen value decrease.

We will know the breakdown soon enough.

Wow, that's great! Good for Sony if they meet their expectations. The Xperia must be helping. Finally Sony can enjoy profits from smartphones that Apple and Samsung have been enjoying for a long time now.

Sony has a life insurance business? Anyway, kudos for the shiny monies!

Yeah it is one of their weird ventures, but a profitable one so they haven't canned it. Unlike the chemical business or whatever else Kaz eliminated right away, but I could be wrong about the profitablity of that. Either way, these are weird things outside their main concentrations.

So, what happens next time when they don't get extra monies from selling buildings? Are they expecting to profit next Q?

Sony is getting into the real estate business.