MUMBAI: Even as the government and bankers claim that credit demand from corporates are inching up indicating a revival in the much-delayed and much-desired animal spirit of India Inc, the largest corporate Reliance Industries’ capital spending has dipped by a 7% year-on-year in FY24 to Rs 1.32 trillion (Rs 1.32 lakh cr), despite a spike in operating income that grew in high double-digits.
The company said the entire capital expenditure in the reporting period was fully covered by internal cash generation and still it is sitting on cash balance of over Rs 2 trillion. The company closed FY24 with an operating income of Rs 1.79 trillion, from which it had earned Rs 79,020 crore.
While RIL has long-term debt of Rs 1.61 trillion, it’s sitting on a cash pile of Rs 69,248 crore and has assets worth Rs 9.6 trillion and liabilities of Rs 2.4 trillion as of March 2024.
The company said in the FY24 annual report that all its business verticals — oil and gas, retail, digital services, and oil-to-chemical — saw improvement in operational performance in driving operating income up by 16.1% to Rs 1.79 trillion in FY24.
“RIL has consolidated its balance sheet after the previous round of capex and is ready for the next level of growth,” Mukesh Ambani, chairman and MD, wrote in the annual report. In the previous year, its capex was stood at Rs 1.42 trillion, as per the report released on Wednesday, which also said the company is ranked at 86th in the Fortune 500 list.
Lower capex helped the company improve its operational performance with the consolidated operating profit rising by 16.1% to Rs 1.79 lakh crore from Rs 1.54 lakh crore in FY23.
The growth was driven by a 28.4 percent increase in operating income in the retail segment benefited from improved operating leverage, higher footfalls, and growth in digital channels.
The digital services segment also saw a 12.7% operating income increase due to higher revenue from an expanded subscriber base and increased customer engagement.