Reliance logs ₹12,273 cr profit in Q1

MUMBAI: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Friday reported a consolidated net profit of ₹12,273 crore for the quarter ended June 30, down 7.25% from ₹13,233 crore a year ago, as the second wave of Covid-19 impacted businesses. Revenue from operations rose 58% to ₹1.44 lakh crore, compared with ₹91,238 crore a year ago.

A Bloomberg poll had estimated consolidated net sales of ₹1.47 lakh crore and a consolidated net profit of ₹13,022.90 crore.

Consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, (Ebitda) for the quarter stood at ₹27,550 crore, higher by 27.6%. Ebitda is a measure of a company’s profitability.

“Our company has delivered robust growth despite facing a highly challenging operating environment caused by the second wave of the Covid pandemic,” said Mukesh Ambani, RIL’s chairman and managing director, adding that the company’s oil-to-chemicals business generated strong earnings through its integrated portfolio and superior product placement capabilities. “Along with our partner BP, we commissioned the satellite cluster in KG D6 and continued to ramp up production, contributing to 20% of gas production in India. This will be a major contribution to our country’s energy security,” Ambani added.

RIL shares closed 0.74% lower at ₹21,05.20 on the BSE ahead of its earnings announcement.

On the telecom front, RIL’s subsidiary Jio Platforms saw its consolidated revenue from operations rise 9.8% to ₹18,952 crore. While net profit for the segment stood at ₹ 3,651 crore, up 44.9% year on year, Ebitda increased 21.3% to ₹8,892 crore. The subscriber base has peaked at 440.6 million, with a “net addition of 14.3 million subscribers”, RIL said.

The quarterly traffic is at over 20 exabytes or 20 billion GB, a growth of 38.5%. Total voice traffic during the quarter was of 1.06 trillion minutes, marking a 19.5% growth.

Average revenue per user (Arpu) during the quarter stood at ₹138.4 per subscriber per month, while total data traffic was 20.3 billion GB during the quarter, up 38.5%.

Jio and Microsoft have operationalized an initial 10 MW capacity of Jio-Azure cloud data centers across Jamnagar and Nagpur. Onboarding of pilot customers across SMEs and startups is underway with further enhancement in capacity would be done in subsequent quarters.

“Necessary approvals and trial 5G spectrum in 3GPP band n78 have been received for initiating 5G field trials. Jio 5G Standalone Network has been installed in our data centers across the country,” the company said.

The company’s retail segment delivered gross revenues of ₹38,547 crore, up 21.9%. Net profit for the quarter was ₹962 crore higher by 123.2%.

Store expansion was constrained during the quarter as the business opened 123 stores taking the total count to 12,803. Another 700-plus stores in the pipeline will be commissioned as curbs are lifted.

“Covid-related restrictions on store operations during the quarter impacted our retail business operations and profitability. This is a temporary phenomenon. I am confident that the retail business is poised to create exponential value and growth,” Ambani added.

Our company has delivered robust growth despite facing a highly challenging operating environment caused by the pandemic

MUKESH AMBANI,