Sony's profit expected to more than quadruple after painful restructuring

Japanese electronics major Sony's profit is expected to more than quadruple to about 300bn yen (£1.66bn, €2.32bn, $2.51bn) in the fiscal year ending in March 2016, as the company starts to benefit from its restructuring efforts.

The Nikkei reported that the company expects a sharp drop in costs related to restructuring. Sony disposed of its personal computer business earlier and recorded an impairment loss in connection with the restructuring of its smartphone business.

In 2014, the company recorded costs of 335bn yen related to restructuring. Over the last five years, the costs totalled more than 700bn yen.

In the ongoing fiscal year, the company expects to cut costs of about 60bn yen due to a reduction in payroll at sales companies for TVs and other products.

Sony's profit growth was also based on its expected higher sales of display sensors used in mobile phones, and of the Playstation gaming console in the fiscal year 2015. Sony is one of the top players in the global image-sensor market.

Demand for Sony's latest PlayStation 4 gaming console is expected to remain solid, after it logged sales of 20 million units faster than its predecessors.

The Nikkei also cautioned that the yen's weakness against the dollar and strength against the euro are expected to make imports and exports less profitable, shaving off profits to the tune of about 100bn yen.

The newspaper added that Sony has taken longer than its Japanese peers Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric to complete structural reforms, but the company is finally at the starting point of recovery.