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The consolidated net profit of Reliance Industries Ltd, the oil to telecom conglomerate owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, rose 17.4 per cent in the July-September quarter to ₹9,516 crore from a year ago as revenue from operations jumped 54.5 per cent to ₹1,56,291 crore.
The consolidated net profit was ₹8,109 crore on revenue of ₹1,01,169 crore in the second quarter of FY18.
Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio), a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL, posted a net profit of ₹681 crore for the quarter under review, making its fourth consecutive quarter of profits. In the comparable year-ago quarter, the operator had posted a net loss of ₹271 crore.
The company’s EBITDA rose to ₹3,573 crore, a 148 per cent jump from ₹1,443 crore posted during the same year-ago quarter. The company added 37 million new customers during the quarter, the highest since the launch of its commercial services.
However, the company’s Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), stood at ₹131.7 during the quarter.
“ARPU has come up slightly because of the massive expansion in JioPhones due to the Monsoon Hungama, as well as because we have expanded into more tier III, IV cities and rural areas. The Jio plan of ₹99 plan has been pulling in people,” Anshuman Thakur, Head of Strategy and Planning at RJio, said.
Subscriber base
RJio’s subscriber base crossed 252.3 million, while churn stood at 0.66 per cent.
Reliance Industries, which runs the world’s biggest refining and petrochemicals complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat, said the quarterly consolidated net profit was also boosted by higher price realisations from refinery and petrochemical products.
The gross refining margins — what a refiner earns by turning a barrel of crude oil into refined products — fell to $9.5 per barrel from $12 a year ago due to higher crude prices and shut down of the Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCC).
The lower refining margins dragged down the EBIT in the refining and marketing business by 19.6 per cent to ₹5,322 crore.
The crude throughput dropped to 17.7 million tonnes (mt) from 18.1 mt a year ago.
The petrochemicals business posted a 56.2 per cent rise in revenue to ₹43,745 crore from Rs 27,999 crore in the second quarter of FY18 on the back of higher volumes and price realisations.
The throughput in petrochemicals rose to 9.4 mt from 7.9 mt a year earlier.
“Our integrated refining and petrochemicals business generated strong cash flows in a period of heightened volatility in commodity and currency markets,” Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said in a statement.
Reliance said that the ₹1 cut in petrol and diesel prices effected by state-run oil marketing companies will not have an impact on its retail expansion plans.
RIL also announced its entry into mass rapid transport systems with the acquisition of 12.7 per cent stake in SkyTran Inc for an undisclosed amount. SjyTran is a US incorporated venture-funded technology company developing state of the art technology in the field of personal rapid transit systems.
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