Reliance Industries Ltd on Monday posted better than expected profits for the second quarter ended September 30, 2024, led by its telecom business even as the oil-to-chemicals (O2C) segment released subdued numbers.

Net profit (attributable to the owners of the company) came in at ₹16,563 crore compared with ₹17,394 crore a year ago, down almost 4.78 per cent.

Analysts had forecast RIL to post net profit between ₹15,400 and ₹16,000 crore.

Revenues stood at ₹2.35 lakh crore in the quarter compared with ₹2.34 lakh crore a year ago against brokerage projection between ₹2.31 lakh crore and ₹ 2.34 lakh crore.

Analysts had expected the O2C segment to weigh down the results on account of lower refining margins. However, the tepid show by the retail segment was a bigger disappointment.

All eyes were on the telecom business after the tariff hike in July. The segment did not disappoint with Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL), which houses the telecom and digital businesses, reporting an average revenue per user (ARPU) of ₹195.1 compared with ₹181.7 in the preceding three months. Analysts had expected ARPU to come between ₹184 and ₹191.

Reliance said the jump in ARPU was caused by the partial follow-through of the tariff increase and a better subscriber mix, and the full impact of the hike will flow through in the next two-three quarters.

During the quarter, JPL’s revenue from operations rose 18 per cent to ₹31,709 crore from ₹26,875 crore a year ago.

Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were up 17.8 per cent over the same period of the previous year at ₹15,931 crore, while the EBITDA margin was at 50.2 per cent compared with 50.3 per cent.

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) — which is part of Jio Platforms — reported net profit at ₹6,231 crore against ₹5,058 crore a year ago, while revenues rose to ₹28,338 crore from ₹24,750 crore.

Revenues from the O2C business rose 5 per cent over the previous year to ₹155,580 crore from ₹147,988 crore, while EBITDA dropped 23.7 per cent to ₹12,413 crore from ₹16,277 crore. EBITDA margin fell 300 basis points to 8 per cent.

The quarter was marked by lower polymer margins and weak performance of the polyester segment because of firm naptha prices amid slow recovery in downstream demand.

Revenues of Reliance Retail Ventures fell 3.5 per cent to ₹66,502 crore from ₹68,937 crore, while EBITDA was stable at ₹5,850 crore.

EBITDA margins rose 30 basis points to 8.8 per cent, while net profits rose 1.3 per cent to ₹2,836 crore.

RIL said the revenue growth was impacted by weak Fashion and Lifestyle (F&L) demand. Besides, the company was more focussed on the streamlining of operations and had taken up a calibrated approach to the B2B business to improve margins.

``Our performance reflects robust growth in digital services and upstream business. This helped partially offset weak contribution from O2C business which was impacted by unfavourable global demand-supply dynamics,” Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance, said.