Reliance Industries on Friday reported a 10.9 per cent rise in its third quarter net profits as strong performance in its retail and telecom businesses more than offset the drag in its oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business earnings resulting from a planned maintenance and inspection shutdown.

RIL posted a net profit of Rs 19,641 crore compared with Rs 17,706 crore in the same period of the previous year. Brokerages had pencilled in a number of anywhere between Rs 16,200 crore and Rs 16,800 crore.

During the quarter, RIL reported consolidated revenues of Rs 227,970 crore against Rs 220,165 crore in the year-ago period. This was a tad lower than analysts’ expectations of Rs 2,29,000 lakh crore.

The consumer business again led the show at RIL as revenues in Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) jumped nearly 23 per cent over the previous year, while Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL), which houses its digital services, saw the topline rising 11 per cent

O2C revenue declined 2.4 per cent largely on account of lower price realisation led by a 5.3 per cent decline in average brent crude oil prices.

RIL’s telecom arm Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) saw its revenues rise 10.3 per cent to Rs 25,368 crore (Rs 22,998 crore).

Strong subscriber additions raised its profit 12.3 per cent to Rs 5,208 crore from Rs 4,638 crore a year ago. The average revenue per user (ARPU) met expectations, remaining unchanged at Rs 181.7 sequentially.

The retail business stole the spotlight in the last quarter: while gross revenues rose nearly 23 per cent to Rs 83,063 crore (Rs 67,623 crore), EBITDA (earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes & amortisation) gained nearly 30 per cent to Rs 6,061 crore.

RIL said the grocery, fashion and lifestyle and consumer electronics businesses led the performance.

EBITDA margin from operations was also up 40 basis points to 8.1 per cent, driven by operating leverage and continued focus on cost management.

During the quarter, Reliance Retail opened 252 stores that took the total count at the end of the quarter to 18,774 with an area of 72.9 million square feet, with footfalls rising 40.3 per cent to 282 million.

On the other hand, gross revenues at its digital service business jumped 11.4 per cent to Rs 32,510 crore from Rs 29,195 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Segment EBITDA showed a rise of 11.5 per cent to Rs 13,955 crore.

RIL pointed out that Jio outpaced the competition by adding 11.2 million subscribers, aided by the rapid rollout of 5G services even as it reported a monthly churn of 1.7 per cent.

ARPU showed an improvement over the previous year on a better subscriber mix partially offset by unlimited data allowance on a 5G network.

RIL said the JioFiber service is available in over 4,000 cities and towns, with pan-India coverage expected in the first half of this calendar year.

There have been encouraging early signs of demand and customer engagement, and content bundling is driving a 30 per cent higher per capita usage.

The O2C business showed a drop in its topline with gross revenues declining 2.4 per cent to Rs 141,096 crore (Rs 144,630 crore).

Segment EBITDA for the quarter marginally increased 1 per cent to Rs 14,064 crore led by higher gasoline cracks and advantageous feedstock sourcing.

This was partially offset by lower downstream chemical margins and planned maintenance and inspection shutdown.

During the quarter, while outstanding debt stood at Rs 311,743 crore (Rs 303,530 crore), cash and cash equivalents were at Rs 192,371 crore (Rs 193,282 crore).

As a result, net debt stood at Rs 119,372 crore against Rs 110,248 crore a year ago.