Sony CEO re-elected to board with 88 percent vote after turnaround

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp CEO Kazuo Hirai was re-elected with 88 percent support of shareholders at an annual general meeting earlier this week, the company said, showing investors maintained their confidence in him despite low return on equity (ROE).

Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services had advised investors to vote against his re-election because Sony, after years of losses, failed to achieve a minimum condition of a five-year ROE average of 5 percent.

Hirai won 89 percent of votes last year, at a time when Sony was only starting to show signs of a turnaround due to massive cost cuts and strong sales of camera sensors and videogames.

(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Chris Gallagher)