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Mukesh Ambani’s oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries reported net profit of ₹9,108 crore for the June 2017 quarter, up 28 per cent from the corresponding period last year.
Record segment profits in the marketing of petroleum products, petrochemicals and organised retail pushed net profit to an all-time high, buoyed by stable crude oil prices.
The company has not begun to disclose separate performance numbers for its newly launched 4G telecom service Jio but has announced further investment in this business.
In a separate disclosure to stock exchanges, Reliance Jio Infocomm, a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL, said it is raising ₹20,000 crore in rights issue from its parent in 9 per cent non-cumulative optionally convertible preference shares.
On a consolidated basis for RIL, revenue rose 26.7 per cent to ₹90,537 crore for the group, The increase in revenue is primarily on account of increase in prices and volumes of refining and petrochemical products.
Brent crude oil price averaged $49.9/bbl in 1Q FY18 as compared to $45.6/bbl in the corresponding period of the previous year.
Segment revenue for refining and marketing business was ₹66,945 crore, up 18.3 per cent, while petrochemicals reported revenue of ₹25,461 crore, up 22.9 per cent.
The gross refining margin for the quarter – the difference between the cost of crude and price of refined products, used as a measure of refining efficiency – was $11.9 a barrel for RIL this quarter, outperforming the regional benchmark Singapore Complex by $5.5.
Organised retail reported segment revenue of ₹11,571 crore, up a whopping 73.6 per cent from the same period last year. The media business – operated through Network18 Media and Investments – reported revenue of ₹321 crore, down 8.8 per cent.
In other exchange disclosures, RIL said it will buy 24.92 per cent stake in entertainment company Balaji Telefilms Ltd for ₹413.28 crore.
Investment in Israel start-up Additionally, RIL has also proposed to invest up to $25 million in Israel-based technology incubator Jerusalem Innovation Incubator (JII), which in turn, will invest in early stage start-ups over an 8-year period.
The investments would be made through Israel-based start-up crowd-funding platform OurCrowd and Motorola Solutions.
The incubator’s focus will be on start-ups working with new age technologies such as Big Data, computer vision, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and fintech.
Shares of RIL closed at ₹1,528.70 apiece on the BSE on Thursday, down 0.31 per cent.
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