The chief executive of Sony, Kazuo Hirai, has announced that its video and audio businesses will be placed into a separate company for three years as it plans to return to profit. The firm is looking to achieve an operating profit of 500 billion yen (£2.17 billion) by March 2018 and as part of the restructure it would downsize its head office.

Mr Hirai said the company must not be afraid to change if it hoped "to grow in a Sony-like way", adding that the company would not chase sales growth in smartphones, but would focus on areas such as entertainment operations like PlayStation and TV programming.

Other sections of the business could also be separated, Mr Hirai said, with the computer chip and battery divisions likely candidates, but details have yet to be decided.

He added he could not "rule out considering an exit strategy", from Sony's TV and mobile phone units in the company's clearest statement to date about the possibility of selling or finding partners for the struggling units.