Sony Corp. will unify its 13 domestic assembly facilities for electronic products under a new company to be set up next year in an attempt to enhance its engineering and manufacturing operations, the firm announced Wednesday.

President and COO Kunitake Ando said the new company, tentatively named Sony EMCS AV/IT, will commence operations April 1 and be responsible for domestic assembly of all electronics products.

Sony hopes the consolidation will allow it to raise efficiency in its manufacturing operations, which are currently separated on both product-category and internal lines.

The new company will cover mass production as well as procurement and manufacturing planning while improving operational efficiency via information technology, the firm said.

Sony also announced Wednesday it will set up Aug. 1 a new in-house unit focusing on semiconductor operations, which the company regards as one of its core sectors.

The new unit, to be named Semiconductor Network Company, aims to meet market demand by close association with the firm's product-development divisions, Sony officials said.

Sony meanwhile said it posted a consolidated net loss of 88.3 billion yen for the April-June period of fiscal 2000 due to a change in accounting regulations regarding its movie business in the United States.

The company estimates the impact of the change at 107.9 billion yen.

On a consolidated basis, Sony made 39.1 billion yen in pretax profit, down 8.6 percent from the same period last year, though its sales grew 5.4 percent to 1.56 trillion yen. Its operating profit dropped 20.1 percent to 33.7 billion yen.

Sony attributed its sales increase to its electronics business, with the movie and video game businesses and the appreciation of the yen hurting overall performance.

Sony said it registered the net loss after adopting new accounting rules for film production and distribution, which require advertisement and distribution costs to be posted in full when they are generated as opposed to deferred under the old rules.