Sony Group Corporation (NYSE:SONY) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call August 7, 2024 3:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Hiroki Totoki - President, COO and CFO
Naomi Matsuoka - Senior Vice President, In charge of Corporate Planning and Control, Lead of Group DEI, Support for Finance Business and Entertainment Area
Sadahiko Hayakawa - Senior Vice President, In charge of Finance and IR
Kazuhiro Yamada - Senior Managing Director & CFO, Sony Financial Group Inc.

Conference Call Participants

Mikio Hirakawa - BofA Securities
Ryosuke Katsura - SMBC Nikko Securities
Yasuo Nakane - Mizuho Securities
Junya Ayada - JPMorgan Securities

Unidentified Company Representative

It's time. We'd now like to start the Sony Group Corporation Consolidated Earnings Announcement Meeting. I'm Okada from PR. I'll be serving as emcee. I'd like to introduce the presenters. President, COO and CFO, Hiroki Totoki; Senior Vice President, In Charge of Corporate Planning and Control, Lead of Group DEI, Support for Finance Business and Entertainment Area, Naomi Matsuoka; Senior Vice President, In Charge of Finance and IR, Sadahiko Hayakawa; Sony Financial Group, Inc., Senior Managing Director and CFO, Kazuhiro Yamada.

These four will be making presentations about the results of the first quarter fiscal '24 and forecast for the full-year. And afterwards, we'll have Q&A. Total session time expected to be about 70 minutes. Mr. Totoki, please.

Hiroki Totoki

First, I would like to briefly discuss the recent changes in the financial market environment. We are extremely concerned about the sudden fluctuations in exchange rates and possibility of economic downturn, particularly in the United States. The result, the forecast we are presenting today does not incorporate any of the recent rapid market changes.

I believe that your interest in foreign exchange, the assumption assumed rate is evaluated at the rate very similar to today's rate. And with that, we evaluate our performance. However, we will closely monitor the impact on the real economy and our business going forward and aim to take any necessary actions swiftly and provide an update if any significant changes occur.

Now we will explain this content. Starting from this time, Mr. Yamada from Sony Financial Group will provide an explanation of the Financial Services segment in addition to Ms. Matsuoka and Mr. Hayakawa and I will then give a summary at the end.

Now Hirakawa-san, please?

Sadahiko Hayakawa

Consolidated sales, including the Financial Services segment for the quarter increased a significant 12% compared to the same quarter of the previous fiscal year to 2.574 [ph] billion yen, and operating income increased a significant 50.6 billion yen to 249.1 billion yen.