RIL Q4 net rises 20% aided by a strong show across units

Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) reported fourth-quarter consolidated net profit rose 20% year-on-year to ₹18,021 crore, aided by strong performance across the conglomerate’s multiple businesses.

The refining to retail and telecom company’s consolidated revenue for the three months ended March 31 increased by 35.1% to ₹2,32,539 crore, from ₹1,72,095 crore in the year-earlier period.

Full year revenue and earnings were boosted by the businesses spanning oil-to-chemicals (O2C), oil and gas, retail and digital services, RIL said.

FY22 consolidated revenue at ₹7,92,756 crore surged 47%, while net profit grew 26% to ₹67,845 crore.

Jio Platform Ltd. reported 17% growth in annual consolidated gross revenue at ₹95,804 crore. Consolidated net profit for the year increased 23.6% to ₹15,487 crore. Total data traffic at 91.4 billion GB, was up 46.3% from the previous year. The digital services revenue was primarily driven by higher ARPU and ramp up of wireline services, the company said.

Reliance Retail reported gross revenue of ₹1,99,704 crore for the full year, an increase of 26.7%. Net profit climbed 28.7% to ₹7,055 crore. The area of operation of the retail arm expanded to 41.6 million sq. ft from 33.8 million sq. ft a year earlier. Segment revenues increased considerably driven by broad based growth across all consumption baskets, RIL said.

RIL’s net debt as at March 31 was at ₹34,812 crore. The board recommended a dividend of ₹8 per share.

“Despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic and heightened geo-political uncertainties, Reliance has delivered a robust performance in FY22,” said chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani. “Our O2C business has proven its resilience and has demonstrated strong recovery despite volatility in the energy markets,” he added.

“The gradual opening up of economies coupled with sustained high utilisation rates across sites and the improvement in transportation fuel margins and volumes have bolstered our O2C earnings,” Mr. Ambani observed.

He said the retail business had crossed the 15,000-store benchmark and JioFiber had emerged as the largest broadband provider in India. The oil and gas business was now contributing 20% of domestic gas production, he added.

RIL said O2C revenue was driven by the increase in crude oil prices and higher price realisation of downstream products with higher volumes of refining products. The segment reported revenue of ₹5,00,900 crore, up 56.5%. The EBITDA grew 38% to ₹52,722 crore.

Revenue at the company’s oil and gas business more than tripled to ₹7,492 crore. Segment EBITDA sharply increased to ₹5,457 crore, with EBITDA margin at 72.8%. “This was primarily due to higher production from KGD6 post commencement of gas production from R-Cluster and Sat-Cluster field coupled with higher gas price realisation in KGD6 and CBM,” RIL said.