Sony’s board resolved on Sep 3, 2025 to execute a partial spin-off of Sony Financial Group, effective Oct 1, 2025

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, from public records. Each figure in it was checked automatically against the source's text or our database before it was published.

Sony Group said on Sep 3, 2025 that its board had resolved that day to carry out a partial spin-off of Sony Financial Group Inc. (SFGI), the wholly owned subsidiary that runs its Financial Services business, effective Oct 1, 2025. SFGI’s business was the operation and management of a life insurance company, a non-life insurance company, a bank or other companies it owned as subsidiaries, and its president and chief executive was Toshihide Endo. Sony said the spin-off was subject to the condition that the Tokyo Stock Exchange approve the listing of SFGI shares and not revoke that approval. Sony filed the notice on a Form 6-K, the report a foreign private issuer, the SEC’s term for a qualifying non-US company, files with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and referred back to its update of May 14, 2025.1^,2^,3^,4^,5^,6^,7^,8

Sony planned to carry out the spin-off by distributing SFGI shares as a dividend in kind, meaning a non-cash dividend, at the rate of one SFGI share for each Sony share held on the record date of Sep 30, 2025. It set Sep 26, 2025 as the last trading date with dividend rights of Sony shares, and expected SFGI shares to be tradable on the Tokyo Stock Exchange from the ex-dividend date of Sony shares, Sep 29, 2025, ahead of the distribution on Oct 1, 2025.9^,10^,11^,12

Sony gave the total carrying amount of the shares to be distributed as 465,186,650,401 yen, or 77.61 yen a share, estimated as of the end of July 2025 in its standalone accounts under Japanese accounting rules. It said the per-share amount was an accounting figure and not a trading price, and that the fair value of the SFGI shares had not been disclosed. Sony said the effect of the spin-off on its consolidated results had not been determined. Sony said it planned to reclassify the Financial Services business’s accumulated other comprehensive income balance at the time of deconsolidation to net income or loss from discontinued operations. The balance was a loss of approximately 1.4 trillion yen at the end of June 2025, and Sony said the reclassification was a move between items within equity that does not affect total equity.13^,14^,15^,16^,17^,18^,19

After the spin-off Sony expected to hold slightly less than 20% of SFGI shares, with SFGI ceasing to be a consolidated subsidiary and becoming an affiliate accounted for under the equity method. The notice listed SFGI’s consolidated figures for the fiscal year ended Mar 31, 2025 as total assets of 23,370,923 million yen and profit attributable to owners of the parent of 78,791 million yen, on a Japanese statutory basis that differs from the Financial Services segment results Sony disclosed under IFRS.20^,21^,22^,23

The notice concerns the Financial Services business, not the game studios: in our company tree, Bungie, Insomniac Games and Naughty Dog are studios of Sony Interactive Entertainment, a Sony Group company. This account rests on the Form 6-K of Sep 3, 2025; later filings by Sony are not read here, so this article does not say whether the listing was approved or the spin-off took effect on Oct 1, 2025.4^,24^,25^,26^,27^,1^,3