MUMBAI: India’s largest company by market value, Reliance Industries, on Thursday reported a 12 percent rise in quarterly profit, helped by strong demand in its retail business, telecom tariff hike and 5G subscribers. The addition boosted the telecom unit. Profit rose to Rs 21,930 crore in the December quarter, beating analysts’ estimates. Revenues totaled over Rs 2.4 lakh crore, up nearly 7 percent.
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Operating profit, a measure of core business performance, rose nearly 8% to Rs 45,595 crore. Expenditures rose 7 percent to around Rs 2.1 lakh crore. Operating profit of conventional oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business rose 2% to Rs 14,402 crore on higher volumes and operational flexibility.
Digital services business (Jio) operating profit rose 17% to Rs 16,640 crore on higher subscriber base, and increase in telecom tariffs. Jio’s average revenue per user (ARPU) – a key metric that influences revenue – was up 12% at Rs 203 in Q3FY25. ARPU is the total revenue of a telecom operator divided by the number of subscribers on its network. Launched in 2016, Jio had 482 million subscribers as of December 31, 2024 and saw data and voice traffic grow by 22% and 7% respectively on its network.
Retail business operating profit rose 9% to Rs 6,840 crore on operational efficiencies. Increased consumer engagement through new product launches and promotions during the festive season also boosted distribution. The business also saw a shift in the fashion and lifestyle consumption basket during the quarter. Grocery business under JioMart, Signature Fresh, Smart Bazaar and 7-Eleven grew by 37%. As of December 31, 2024, Reliance Retail had 19,102 outlets.
Reliance Chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani said O2C has demonstrated its “inherent resilience” even during this long period of volatility in global energy markets. He said the strong growth in digital services was driven by “steady subscriber growth”, with increasing numbers of customers upgrading to 5G networks. While the retail business “gained substantially on pickup in consumption amid festive demand during the quarter”.
Operating profit of the oil and gas business fell 4 percent to Rs 5,565 crore due to lower revenue. RIL’s net debt at the end of Q3FY25 was Rs 1.15 lakh crore, and it had cash and cash equivalents of Rs 2.34 lakh crore. The company spent Rs 32,259 crore on capital expenditure during the quarter.