Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Friday reported a 15 per cent fall in its net profit in the third quarter of 2022-23 to Rs 15,792 crore from Rs 18,549 crore a year ago — which is broadly in line with analyst estimates.
Analysts had estimated a net profit in the range of Rs 15,400 crore to over Rs 16,000 crore.
Revenues were up 15 per cent to Rs 220,592 crore from Rs 191,271 crore a year ago.
Reliance’s oil-to-chemicals (O2C) and the retail business fared well, while the digital services segment was a slight miss.
EBITDA — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation — offered a pleasant surprise, overtaking analyst estimates by a wide margin. It stood at Rs 38,460 crore against the Street estimate of Rs 36,000 crore.
The best performer was the O2C business, which posted a 10 per cent rise in revenues over the same period of the previous year. While O2C revenues stood at Rs 144,630 crore against Rs 131,427 crore in the year-ago quarter, EBITDA rose 2.9 per cent to Rs 13,926 crore. On a sequential basis, it rose over 16 per cent.
RIL said revenues increased on account of higher realisations, with crude prices rising 11 per cent. The topline was constrained by lower throughput with planned maintenance and inspection activity during the quarter.
The growth in EBITDA was supported by strength in middle distillate cracks which was partially offset by weak margins across polymer and polyester chain products.
RIL disclosed the windfall tax on transportation fuels impacted earnings by Rs 1,898 crore.
On the other hand, Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL), which represents its digital services business, witnessed a 29 per cent growth in net profits to Rs 4,881 crore from Rs 3,795 crore in the same period of the previous year. Its gross revenues during the quarter showed a jump of 21 per cent to Rs 29,195 crore, while EBITDA jumped 25 per cent to Rs 12,519 crore.
Reliance Jio Infocomm clocked a net profit of Rs 4,638 crore compared with Rs 3,615 crore in the year-ago period, a rise of over 28 per cent. Its revenue came in at Rs 22,998 crore against Rs 19,347 crore in October-December 2021.
Reliance said the average revenue per user (ARPU) grew to Rs 178.2 during the quarter, up from Rs 177.2 in the preceding three months, below the expectations of brokerages such as Prabhudas Lilladher which had pencilled in ARPU at Rs 182.
Net subscriber addition during the quarter was 5.3 million as gross adds remained strong at 34.2 million.
The retail business saw a 6.2 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 2,400 crore (Rs 2,259 crore) after gross revenues rose more than 17 per cent to Rs 67,623 crore from Rs 57,714 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.
RIL added that the growth in its topline was led by well-rounded growth across all baskets and channels even as the business expanded its physical store network with 789 new store openings totaling to an area of 6 million square feet.
However, debt levels continued to rise. The outstanding debt as on December 31 stood at Rs 3,03,530 crore, more than the cash and cash equivalents at Rs 1,93,282 crore. Outstanding debt as on September 30 was Rs 2,94,859 crore.
The board on Friday approved a proposal to raise Rs 20,000 crore through non-convertible debentures.
