Reliance Industries has posted its highest ever quarterly net profit as bumper earnings from the retail business, improved profitability of telecom arm and near doubling of earnings from petrochemical business offset lower margins from oil refining business.
Consolidated net profit of Rs 9,459 crore, or Rs 16 per share, in April-June, was 17.9 per cent higher than Rs 8,021 crore, or Rs 13.5 a share, in the same period of previous fiscal, the oil-to-telecom conglomerate said, adding that its revenue was up 56.5 per cent at Rs 141,699 crore.
The April-June 2017 profit has been taken after excluding Rs 1,087 crore exceptional income from the sale of a stake in Gulf Africa Petroleum Corp, Reliance reportedly said.
Its retail business, which comprises of 8,533 stores across over 5,200 towns and cities, saw pre-tax profits jump by a 266 per cent to Rs 1,069 crore on more than doubling of revenues to Rs 25,890 crore, reported PTI.
Reliance Jio, the group’s telecom arm, reportedly posted a standalone net profit of Rs 612 crore, which was 17 per cent more than the previous quarter as subscriber base swelled to 215 million. It had a pre-tax loss of Rs 22 crore in the first quarter of 2017-18.
The petrochemical business saw pre-tax profits jump by 94.9 per cent to Rs 7,857 crore after the company stabalised operations of a new refinery off-gas cracker and other downstream units, the report said.
The operator of world’s largest oil refining complex saw pre-tax earnings from the business declining 16.8 per cent to Rs 5,315 crore as margins dipped, it added.
It earned $10.5 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel as compared to a gross refining margin of USD 11.9 per barrel. This was attributed to lower crude throughput due to a planned turnaround of one crude distillation unit and softer refining margins, the PTI report said.
The pre-tax loss of oil and gas business widened to Rs 447 crore from Rs 373 crore in the first quarter of 2017-18 due to continued decline in production, it added.