MUMBAI: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) continued its winning streak retaining its forecast-busting financial performance for the seventh straight quarter. The fiscal gone by also saw the Mukesh Ambani-led company register its highest-ever annual net profit, perhaps aided by higher refining and petrochemical margins.
RIL’s consolidated net profit shot up 12.3 per cent at Rs 8,046 crore for the quarter ended March, 2017 against Rs 7,167 crore recorded during the same period a year ago. On a standalone basis, profit rose 13 per cent at Rs 8,151 crore during the quarter under review compared to Rs 7,227 crore a year ago. On a sequential basis though, standalone profit grew a mere 1.6 per cent.
“Refining and petrochemicals businesses achieved record levels of profitability, underpinned by our ability to access feedstock competitively from global markets, maintain high operating rates and place products in growth markets,” said Mukesh Ambani, chairman, RIL in a statement.
For the full fiscal FY17, RIL generated its highest-ever annual profit at Rs 29,901 crore, clocking 18.8 per cent growth over the previous year.The better-than-expected performance was largely due to higher gross refining margins, which stood at $11.5 per barrel during the fourth quarter and higher than analysts projection of $10.5 to $11 per barrel.
Meanwhile, losses for its telecom arm Reliance Jio widened to Rs 22.5 crore for the six months ended March 2017 against Rs 7.46 crore in the year-ago period. Total income dropped to Rs 54 lakh against Rs 2.25 crore.
Jio, which launched its services in September, had no revenue from operations during October 2016 to March 2017, while other income fell to Rs 0.54 crore from Rs 2.23 crore in the same six months of 2015-16. Since its launch, the unlisted entity ran two back-to-back offerings of free data and voice and the only charge it took from the 120 million subscribers was a voluntary Rs 99 for enrolment as Prime membership.
For the full year, net loss doubled to Rs 31.37 crore. Its debt jumped to Rs 47,463 crore from Rs 32,963 crore in March 2016.