MUMBAI: Reliance Industries, India’s most valuable company by market capitalization, reported a 25% decline in its quarterly profit to Rs 23,196 crore on Friday, beating analysts’ average estimate of Rs 18,550 crore.
The decline was mainly due to a one-time gain of Rs 8,924 crore on sale of stake in Asian Paints in the previous year quarter.Revenue rose 25% to Rs 3.1 lakh crore, supported by strong performance in its oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business and Jio Digital Services. EBITDA rose 10% to Rs 51,403 crore with expenses rising faster by 27% to Rs 2.9 lakh crore.“Reliance had a steady start to FY27, with all companies delivering strong operating performance despite ongoing geopolitical tensions and volatile commodity markets. This makes me optimistic about next year as we develop our new energy projects and Jio’s IPO.” said Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director.EBITDA in the O2C division, which represents 33% of total operating profit, rose 17% year-on-year to Rs 17,010 crore. Stronger transportation fuels and downstream margins, higher crude oil sources from Russia and Latin America, and lower-cost ethane feedstocks drove the gains. Higher crude oil, shipping and insurance costs impacted margins, as did losses resulting from stabilization of domestic fuel prices and the re-imposition of special excise surcharges on diesel, gasoline and jet fuel.
Jio posted a 16% rise in EBITDA to Rs 21,255 crore on strong revenue growth and 150 basis points margin expansion. Average revenue per user rose 3% to Rs 216, supported by better subscriber mix and seasonal gains, partially offset by broadband promotions. Jio, which was launched in 2016, had 533 million customers as of June 30 – the world’s second-largest telecom operator by number of subscribers. Data traffic grew by 27%, and voice traffic grew by 2%.Retail EBITDA was broadly flat at Rs 6,309 crore, down 1% due to higher contribution of digital commerce and infrastructure costs, even as revenue grew by 8%.
EBITDA in the oil and gas segment stood at Rs 4,973 crore.EBITDA of small caps, including media and consumer products, fell 28% to Rs 1,856 crore. For entertainment platform JioStar, EBITDA rose 31% to Rs 933 crore, as strong revenue growth led to improved cost efficiencies. Reliance did not disclose EBITDA for Reliance Consumer Products, but said the unit’s revenue rose 2% to Rs 8,600 crore.Reliance’s cash balance of Rs 2.46 lakh crore comfortably covers net debt of Rs 1.22 lakh crore. As of June 30, Reliance had Rs 27,389 crore in non-convertible debentures. Of this amount, Rs 20,000 crore was backed by guarantee on some of the company’s movable assets. Total capital expenditure stood at Rs 38,682 crore, which was partly funded by green energy build-out and expansion of consumer businesses.