Sony Forecasts Decline in CIS Business Profits

Sony reports its 2017 yearly results for the fiscal year ended on March 31, 2018. While the past year results are very good, the forecast is less so - the profits are expected to decline due to "Increase in depreciation and amortization expenses as well as in research and development expenses:"

SeekingAlpha earnings call transcript gives few more details on the forecast:

"The rate of growth in demand for image sensors is likely to decline in the short term due to saturation of the smartphone market. But over the medium to long-term we expect further growth to come from expansion of new applications such as 3D sensing, security, factory automation and automotive.

So concerning the increase in capacity of image sensors we will watch the supply and demand situation.

And the forecast of a semiconductor business in fiscal 2018 and improvement of product mix. They immediately - the spread of dual camera on smartphone. The pace is slower than we initially expected, but the sensing demand increase is faster than we thought. And so for fiscal ‘18 we will continue to expand the sales of high end image sensors and at the same time work on the implement our profitability.

In other words, we will come up with the high value added product where we can secure the high margin. And at the same time work on the technology development for the new applications such as autos and sensing.

And another point if they are there the plans for investment for the future, because on your R&D expense the last year 450 billion yen, this year 470 billion yen, increase of about 20 billion yen in investment."