Moody's slashes Sony rating, now one downgrade away from junk

Moody’s, one of the big three credit rating agencies, has downgraded Sony’s rating to just a notch above junk. The downgrade to Baa3 from Baa2 happens after another downgrade for Son in October.

The main reason Moody’s quoted is quickly declining sales of Sony consumer electronics. Smartphones might be the only exception in the Japanese company’s business as it cut its forecasts for sales of digital cameras, TVs and gaming consoles.

"Without robust restructuring in the coming 12-18 months, Sony's non-financial services businesses will at best achieve roughly break even, and are also at risk of remaining unprofitable," Moody’s said in a report.

Sony’s Xperia smartphones at the same time grew and the company sold 8.8 million devices in Q3 2012, becoming the world’s fourth-largest smartphone maker after Samsung, Apple and Huawei.