Officials from Sega Sammy Holdings have announced that the company is lowering its expectations for the fiscal first half of the year, ended September 30th. Previous estimates had suggested a net loss of ¥5.0 billion ($42.7m), but this has now been increased to ¥21.5 billion ($183.7m).
As the holding company combining both pachinko maker Sammy and video games publisher Sega, it is Sammy which has the most influence on financial results as a whole. In this case, slower than expected sales of pachinko machines has lead to revenue forecasts being cut from ¥310 billion ($2.65bn) to ¥230 billion ($1.97bn).
An operating profit of ¥14 billion ($119.6m) had been expected for the first half of the year, but this has now been altered to an operating loss of ¥7.0 billion ($59.8m). According to
website TradingMarkets.com the company is reviewing guidance for the full year in the face of a “severe business climate”.
Current full year forecasts, for the financial year ending March 31st 2008, suggest revenues of ¥670 billion ($5.72bn), with a net profit of ¥35 billion ($299.0m) and an operating profit of ¥70 billion ($598.0m).
The exact influence of Sega’s video game business on the forecasts has not been made clear, but in Sega Sammy’s
last quarterly results, which showed a net loss of ¥5.08 billion ($43.4m), the company’s consumer business saw sales dip slightly to ¥16 billion ($137.4m).
