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Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Friday reported a 42% jump in quarterly profit, beating analysts’ estimates, aided by robust performance across businesses, especially its oil-to-chemicals (O2C), telecom and retail units.
Net profit rose to ₹18,549 crore in the three months ended December from ₹13,101 crore the year earlier, Reliance Industries said in a statement. Revenue rose 54% to ₹1.91 trillion from ₹1.23 trillion a year ago.
A Bloomberg survey of analysts estimated net sales of ₹1.77 trillion and profit of ₹15,264.40 crore.
“Reliance has posted its best ever quarterly performance in 3QFY22, with a strong contribution from all our businesses. Both our consumer businesses, retail and digital services, have recorded the highest ever revenues and Ebitda. During this quarter, we continued to focus on strategic investments and partnerships across our businesses to drive future growth," chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said.
Revenue from Reliance Retail grew 53% from a year earlier to ₹57,714 crore, with all consumption baskets recording the highest ever store sales and sustained growth momentum in digital and new commerce. The business posted a record operating profit of ₹3,822 crore, increasing 24% from a year earlier.
“Retail business activity has normalized with strong growth in key consumption baskets on the back of the festive season and as lockdowns eased across the country. Our digital services business has delivered broad-based, sustainable, and profitable growth through improved customer engagement and subscriber mix," Ambani added.
RIL’s shares ended trading on Friday little changed at ₹2,478.10 before its earnings announcement. The benchmark Sensex fell 0.72%to 59,037.18.
Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom arm of Reliance Industries, reported a net profit of ₹3,615 crore for the December quarter, 9.8% higher than ₹3,291 crore in the same period a year ago and 2.5% higher than ₹3,528 crore in the September quarter.
India’s largest telco recorded revenues of ₹19,347 crore for the quarter, up 4.6% from ₹18,492 crore a year ago and up 3.26% from ₹18,735 crore in the September quarter.
Revenue for the oil-to-chemicals business increased by 57% to ₹131,427 crore, primarily due to an increase in crude oil prices and higher sales volume. Segment Ebitda for the quarter improved by 39% to ₹13,530 crore.
“The recovery in global oil and energy markets supported strong fuel margins and helped our oil-to-chemicals business deliver robust earnings. Our oil and gas segment delivered strong growth in Ebitda with volume growth and improved realization," Ambani added.
Oil prices were at higher levels during the December quarter as the oil supply situation remained tight. During the quarter, average crude oil prices increased by $6.4 per barrel to $79.4.
However, India’s overall consumption of petroleum products has seen a 3.8% fall on an annual basis to 53.32 million tonnes, according to data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. According to the data, petrol and diesel consumption rose 2.3% and fell 3.8%, respectively, over the preceding year.
Recovery across product cracks led benchmark Singapore gross refining margins to rise to $6.1 per barrel during the quarter against $3.8 per barrel in the preceding three months. RIL, however, has stopped providing gross refining margin figures.
The company’s energy exploration and production business also posted robust growth on the back of higher gas production from KG D6 and improved price realization. The segment’s revenue zoomed nearly six times to ₹2,559 crore. Price realization for KG D6 gas rose 69% during the quarter to $6.13 per million metric British thermal units against $3.62 in the second quarter of this fiscal.
During the quarter, the company sold all its shale gas assets, exiting from the business in North America.
Gulveen Aulakh contributed to the story.
