RIL beats estimates with 12% increase in net profit
SCORECARD High refining margins, earnings from petrochem biz boost growth
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Monday reported a 11.5% increase in its consolidated March quarter net profit to ₹8,053 crore because of higher refining margins and better earnings from its petrochemicals business.
The profit was higher than the ₹8,046 crore estimated by analysts. Consolidated revenue came in at ₹94,825 crore, up 43.7% compared to ₹65,950 crore a year earlier.
The firm’s standalone net profit for the March quarter was at ₹8,151crore.
A Bloomberg poll of 16 analysts expected RIL to post a standalone net profit of ₹8,015.70 crore on revenue of ₹67,467.10 crore for the three months ended March 31.
Ahead of the earnings announcement, RIL shares closed at ₹1,416.95, up 1.23% on the Bombay Stock Exchange, while the Sensex ended at 29,655.84 points, up 0.99%.
The boost to Reliance’s net profit came after it reported a higher-than-expected gross refining margin (GRM) of $11.5 per barrel.
Analysts had estimated GRMs, or what the company earns from turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel, in the range of $10.5 to $11 per barrel. In the year-ago quarter, Reliance reported GRMs of $10.8 a barrel.
RIL is the operator of the world’s biggest oil-refinery complex with a refining capacity of 1.24 million barrels of oil per day, at Jamnagar in Gujarat.
Singapore’s benchmark GRM was slightly down on a quarterly basis at $6.5 per barrel. During the March quarter, Brent crude oil prices averaged $54 per barrel, up 8% on a quarterly basis.
For six months ended March 31, losses for its telecom arm Jio, widened to ₹22.5 crore against ₹7.46 crore in a year-ago period. Total income dropped to ₹54 lakh against ₹2.25 crore for the sixmonth period.
Jio recently announced that 72 million subscribers have signed up for the company’s Jio prime service. This would be the start to the monetisation of the telecom business.
Meanwhile, Reliance Retail, Reliance Industries’ retail arm, reported a 65.6% rise in pre-tax profit at ₹366 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31. The company had reported a PBDIT (profit before depreciation and income tax) of ₹221 crore in the same period last fiscal.
The turnover during the quarter under review jumped 83% to ₹10,332 crore compared to ₹5,646 crore in the year-ago period.
The company added 63 stores across various store concepts during the quarter under review. The firm runs formats like Reliance Fresh, Reliance Super and Reliance Hyper and operates 3,616 stores across 702 cities in India.
(WITH PTI INPUTS)