( Financial Times ) -- Sony reported its first full-year net profit in five years on Thursday and said it expected earnings to grow by a further 16 per cent this year , helped by restructuring efforts and a weaker yen . The Japanese electronics and entertainment group said net profit for the year that ended in March totalled Y43bn ( $ 435m ) , a turnround from its massive Y457bn loss a year earlier . For the current year , it expects to earn a profit of Y50bn . Sony was helped in the final quarter by a currency market that knocked almost 20 per cent off the yen 's value against the dollar and euro compared with the same period a year earlier , amplifying its overseas earnings . That added to the effect of a restructuring drive through which Sony has axed 10,000 jobs , or about 6 per cent of its workforce , shrunk its lossmaking television manufacturing business and sold its $ 1bn New York headquarters . Sony booked a profit of Y94bn in the January-to-March quarter , compared with a Y255bn loss a year earlier . Its once-dominant TV operation remained in the red , however . The company has struggled to compete against South Korean and Taiwanese producers in the era of digital flat-screens , and the operation has been losing money for nearly a decade . Forty of Sony 's top executives , including Kazuo Hirai , the chief executive since last year , are to give up bonuses worth 30-50 per cent of their pay after they failed to keep a promise to return the division to profit . Sony closed the gap considerably , however , and said it believed it would finally achieve its profitability goal this year . Its consumer electronics loss in the year to March , of Y84bn , was 60 per cent smaller than it was a year earlier . The group 's overall earnings forecasts for the year to next March were more modest than those of industry experts . Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg before the earnings announcement were projecting a net profit of Y66bn on average . Sony said operating profit -- earnings before tax , depreciation and other adjustments -- would probably remain static this year at Y230bn , even as its sales increase by an expected 10 per cent thanks in part to more advantageous exchange rates . If the yen remains at its current level or weakens further , however , the company could do better than its guidance suggests . Sony based its forecasts on exchange rates of Y90 to the dollar and Y120 to the euro , levels about 8 per cent stronger than the yen 's current value . Sony has for some time relied on profits from the banking and insurance operations it owns in Japan to make up for weakness in other businesses . Last year was no different : its financial arm earned a profit of Y149bn , three times more than the next most profitable division , its US-based film studio . © The Financial Times Limited 2013 .
Y120 helped in the final quarter by a currency market that knocked 60 per cent off the yen 's . Sony has for some time relied on profits from its banking and insurance operations in New York . The company has struggled to compete against Taiwanese and South Korean producers .