Reliance net profit jumps 11.9% in December quarter, beating estimates

Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) reported an 11.9% rise in consolidated net profit in December quarter, driven by its energy, retail and digital services units, beating analyst estimates. Consolidated profit after tax rose to ₹21,804 crore from ₹19,488 crore in the year earlier. Net profit attributable to owners of the company was up 7% to ₹18,540 crore from ₹17,265 crore a year earlier. A Bloomberg survey of analysts had pegged profit at about ₹18,326 crore.

Revenue from operations increased 7% to ₹2.43 lakh crore from ₹2.27 lakh crore in the year earlier. Consolidated ebitda increased by 7.8% to ₹48,003 crore. "It gives me great pleasure to see Reliance grow exponentially over the years and set new benchmarks that demonstrate the inherent strength and resilience we have across all our businesses," said Mukesh Ambani, chairman and MD of RIL. "The delivery of record ebitda and profit after tax at a consolidated level for this quarter is a testament to this."

The RIL stock ended at ₹1,268.70, up 1.31% on the BSE on Thursday. The results were announced after market hours.

Agencies

Retail

The retail business posted revenue of ₹90,333 crore, up 8.8% on-year. Strong sequential growth was driven by productivity improvement initiatives and increased customer engagement during festive period through new product launches and promotions.

Ebitda from operations was at Rs 6,632

779 New Stores

Ebitda from operations was at Rs 6,632 crore, up 9.8% on-year. The ebitda margin from operations widened 8.3% and ebitda was up 9.5% year-on-year to Rs 6,828 crore.

During the quarter, the business opened 779 new stores for a total of 19,102 with the area under operation at 77.4 million sq. ft. The business recorded footfalls of over 296 million, a growth of 5% on year.

"Retail segment delivered a strong performance, with noteworthy contribution from all formats," said Ambani, adding that the business ably capitalised on the pick-up in consumption amid festive demand during the quarter. "A superior understanding of customer needs and preferences enables Reliance Retail to serve a wide variety of demographic profiles with the right product, at the right time, through the right channel."

Jio Platforms
Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL), home to RIL's telecom and digital properties, posted a 26% on-year rise in net profit in the fiscal third quarter on the back of the tariff hikes of July 2024, subscriber additions and strong data usage growth.

The rate hikes partly helped Jio grow average revenue per user (ARPU) 4.2% on quarter to Rs 203.3. But the full beneficial impact of the price hikes will be staggered, and likely to come through Q4FY25 and Q1FY26, since Jio has a higher share of subscribers on longer-validity plans compared with Bharti Airtel or Vodafone Idea.

JPL's consolidated net profit climbed to Rs 6,861 crore in the December quarter from Rs 5,447 crore a year earlier, and Rs 6,539 crore in the preceding three months.