Mukesh Ambani
India's richest man makes a mind-boggling Rs 11,000 crore every day. The figures speak for themselves with Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) reporting a whopping Rs 401,302 crore turnover for the financial year 2013-14 on Friday compared to Rs 371,119 crore in FY13. RIL also posted its highest quarterly profit in more than two years as robust petrochemical margins and a surge in export earnings on a drop in rupee value offset weakness in the natural gas business. Net profit rose 0.8 per cent to Rs 5,631 crore, or Rs 17.4 per share, in the January- March period from Rs 5,589 crore, or Rs 17.3 a share, in the same period a year ago. For the full financial year, RIL reported a record net profit of Rs 21,984 crore, the highest by any private sector firm in the country. Net profit was 4.7 per cent higher than Rs 21,003 crore in 2012-13. Earnings from oil refining climbed 12.3 per cent while those from the petrochemical segment were up 10.6 per cent offsetting a 17.8-per cent dip in the oil and gas business, the company said in a statement. RIL, which operates the world's biggest refining complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat, earned $9.3 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in the quarter compared with a gross refining margin of $10.1 a barrel a year earlier and $7.60 a barrel in the preceding three months. Earnings got a boost as the rupee declined to 61.8 against the dollar in Q4 from 54.2 a year earlier. Sales rose 13 per cent to Rs 97,807 crore in Q4. Refining business delivered the highest ever profit with a sharp recovery in gross refining margins towards the end of the year. Petrochemical earnings grew sharply with margin expansion across polymers and downstream polyester products. "While we continue to face technical challenges in growing domestic upstream production, the US shale gas business grew significantly during the year and has become a material contributor to our earnings," RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said. Shale gas business in the US continued to grow in 2013-14 with revenue jumping 45 per cent to $893.3 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation rising 37 per cent to $659.4 million.