Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Friday delivered a blowout performance in its core oil-to-chemical (02C) business — but analysts were expecting much more in a booming export market for transportation fuels.

The oil-to-telecom conglomerate saw its consolidated net profits rising 46.30 per cent to Rs 17,955 crore during the first quarter ended June 30 compared with Rs 12,273 crore a year ago. Analysts had estimated the bottomline would double because of the O2C business even as retail and telecom were expected to chip in with a good show. They had estimated a consolidated net profit of Rs 24,000-25,500 crore.

Though the Jio numbers for the quarter came in line with expectations as it fully benefited from the tariff hikes enforced earlier, the O2C business missed estimates. The O2C segment revenue shot up 56.7 per cent to Rs 1.6 lakh crore from Rs 1.03 lakh crore in the year-ago period, while the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation or EBITDA showed a rise of 63 per cent during the same period to Rs 19,888 crore from Rs 12,231 crore.

Brokerages such as Motilal Oswal had projected an EBITDA of Rs 25,500 crore. Almost 50 per cent of Reliance’s EBITDA is generated by the O2C business. During the quarter, the consolidated EBITDA of the private sector giant came in at Rs 40,179 crore, a rise of 46 per cent over Rs 27,550 crore in the previous year, while its gross revenue stood at Rs 2.42 lakh crore, a rise of 53 per cent over Rs 1.58 lakh crore a year ago. Companies such as RIL have seen their refining margins jump as they buy cheap Russian oil and export large quantities of transportation fuels amid a global shortage.

This was reflected in its overall exports (including deemed exports) which zoomed 71.3 per cent to Rs 96,212 crore ($12.2 billion) against Rs 56,156 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. RIL said this was mainly due to higher price realisations and more volumes of transportation fuels.

The Modi government had targeted this massive gain and imposed an export tax on petrol, diesel and jet fuel (ATF) shipped overseas. Weeks later it scrapped the tax on the export of petrol and slashed the levy on the overseas shipments of diesel and ATF and also on domestically produced crude oil.

RIL said the EU embargo on Russian oil products, higher gas to oil switching, strong travel demand and lower product inventory levels resulted in tight fuel markets. Jio on track The telecom business met analyst expectations when Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) saw its net profits rise to Rs 4,335 crore from Rs 3,501 crore in the year-ago period, an increase of almost 24 per cent.

Revenues rose to Rs 21,873 crore from Rs 17,994 crore last year. Average revenue per user (ARPU) was up to Rs 175.7 per subscriber per month from Rs 167.1 in the preceding three months. Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL), which represents all its digital services business saw its gross revenues rise 23.6 per cent to Rs 27,527 crore from Rs 22,267 crore a year ago. The retail business benefited from the absence of any disruption and revenues shot up 52 per cent to Rs 58,554 crore (Rs 38,547 crore) while EBITDA rose 98 per cent to Rs 3,837 crore from Rs 1,941 crore. RIL’s outstanding debt as on June 30 was Rs 2.6 lakh crore and cash and cash equivalents, Rs 2.05 lakh crore.