Jio profit grows187 pc to Rs2844 crore; subscribers at 400 mn
MUMBAI/October 30-2020: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), the largest capitalised company in the country, on Friday reported consolidated net profit of Rs9,567 crore for the second quarter ending September 30, 2020, against Rs11,262 crore, a year ago, representing a 15.05 per cent decline year-on-year.
However, the profit earned for Q2 is viewed as better than expected by the market, especially market analysts in the sector.
While the revenue was lower for the group, there has been growth in revenue logged by the group’s telecom and retail divisions – Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail Ventures that have been in greater focus of late.
Retail arm revenue
The Reliance’s retail arm, which attracted huge equity investments from reputed international institutions in the past few months, reported revenue of Rs41,100 crore in the September quarter.
“Retail business activity has normalised with strong growth in key consumption baskets as lockdowns ease across the country,” said Mukesh Ambani, chairman of RIL.
“With large capital raise in the last six months across Jio and Retail business, we have welcomed several strategic and financial investors into Reliance family,” Ambani added.
V. Srikanth, joint chief financial officer of RIL, said at a virtual press briefing that the increased footfall and store openings have contributed to the rebound in retail revenues, with 85 per cent of the stores now remaining open.
He expressed hope that the activity level in retail will return to pre-COVID levels during the third quarter.
A company statement said that revenue growth was led by strong performance in the consumer electronics segment led by strong broad-based demand across categories, with laptops and productivity devices more than doubling and high end TVs and appliances delivering strong growth.
Jio profit up
Reliance Jio Infocomm reported a net profit of Rs2,844 crore for the September quarter, up 187 per cent from Rs990 crore, posted in the same quarter a year earlier.
Jio Infocomm’s revenue from operations rose to Rs17,481 crore from Rs13,130 crore in the same period last year with the average revenue per user (Arpu) rising to Rs145 from Rs140 in the June quarter and Rs120 a year ago.
Reliance Jio has thus become the “first operator outside China to have 400 million subscribers in a single-country market.
Oil & gas business
The company witnessed considerable growth in oil and gas businesses with improvement in operating performance due to better market conditions.
Revenues and Ebitda in the petrochemical segment rose sequentially by 17.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter with higher prices across product portfolio and higher volumes, but still 23 per cent lower than the Rs38,538 crore reported a year ago.
In the refining and marketing segment, the company’s revenue increased by 33.3 per cent to Rs62,154 crore.
