Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has posted a consolidated net profit attributable to owners of Rs 9,567 crore in the second quarter ended September 30 against Rs 11,262 crore a year ago, which was still better than analyst estimates.

The Covid-19 pandemic had led to softer crude prices while the lower demand for petroleum products adversely affected RIL’s refining business. Revenues from this segment plunged more than 36 per cent over the same period of the previous year.

Analysts were expecting the energy-to-telecom giant to report a net profit of around Rs 8,100 crore. Its profit before exceptional items came in at Rs 10,602 crore — a growth of 28 per cent over the same period last year.

Jio profit surges

Profits of Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) moved up to Rs 2,844 crore, a sequential rise of almost 13 per cent and a jump of 187 per cent over the same period last year.

Analysts had estimated the bottomline at around Rs 2,600 crore.

Amid more data consumption and tariff hikes, Jio’s total revenues grew to Rs 17,481 crore in the September quarter from Rs 13,130 crore in the corresponding period last year — a rise of 33 per cent.

Average revenue per user was higher at Rs 145 per subscriber per month compared with Rs 140.3 in the preceding quarter.

Jio Platforms, which houses RIL’s telecom and other digital services business, saw revenue from operations rising 7.2 per cent over the first quarter to Rs 18,496 crore.
Retail show

Reliance Retail — the other consumer facing business of the group — reported a 13.77 per cent fall in its pre-tax profit to Rs 2,009 crore for the quarter.
The segment had posted a pre-tax profit of Rs 2,330 crore in the July-September quarter a year ago.

Revenue from the organised retail segment during the quarter was at Rs 39,199 crore, down 13.77 per cent against Rs 41,223 crore in the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

Traditional business

RIL’s traditional business put in a mixed show with petrochemicals witnessing a sequential growth of 18 per cent in revenues at Rs 29,665 crore, though on a year-on-year basis it saw a drop of 23 per cent.

However, the refining & marketing business was a let down with gross refining margins coming in lower at $5.7 per barrel against $6.3 per barrel in the previous quarter and $9.3 per barrel in the same period of last year. Turnover from this segment also plunged to Rs 62,154 crore against Rs 97,229 crore in the year ago period.

“We delivered a strong overall operational and financial performance compared with the previous quarter with a recovery,” said chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani.

Fibre investment

Reliance Industries on Friday brought in investors for its fibre undertaking. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Saudi Arabia’s The Public Investment Fund (PIF) will be investing around $1 billion in this business. Reliance Jio had earlier transferred the control of its optical fibre and tower undertakings to two Sebi registered infrastructure Investment Trusts.

Brookfield Infrastructure and its institutional partners had invested Rs 25,215 crore by subscribing to units of the tower trust.

RIL on Friday said in a presentation that ADIA and PIF have purchased units of the fibre trust for Rs 3,779 crore each. Observers do not rule out the possibility of RIL bringing in more investors in the fibre undertaking.