Reliance Industries, country’s largest company by market-cap, on Friday reported a tepid 2.4% year-on-year rise in net income at Rs19,407 crore in the March quarter, weighed down by softer energy margins.
Strong show by the digital and retail unit businesses has offset the impact. The earnings beat Street estimates of Rs 18,820 crore. Revenue for the reporting period rose 8.8% YoY to Rs 2.88 lakh crore, driven by digital services, retail and oil-to-chemicals business, chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said on Friday. The company incurred a capital expenditure of Rs36,041 crore but remained fully covered by cash generation of nearly Rs 40,000 crore, leaving net debt steady at Rs 1.17 lakh crore. It paid Rs 6,669 crore in taxes during Q4FY25 and Rs 25,230 crore for full year. Capex stood at Rs 36,041 crore for Q4FY25 and annual at Rs 131,107 crore.
Outstanding debt as of March end stood at Rs 347,530 crore but it has carried cash & cash equivalents of Rs 230,447 crore, only Rs 117,083 crore in net debt or 0.60x its operating profit. It incurred a finance cost of Rs 24,269 crore, up 5% YoY for the fiscal, mainly due to higher average liability balances.
Operating profit from digital services rose 18.5% to Rs 39,853 crore as Jio’s 5G user base rose to 191 million and average revenue per user rose to Rs 206.2 after tariff revisions. Net profit from this vertical rose 25.7% to `7,022 crore for Q4 and Rs 26,120 crore for full year. Operating profit from retail arm grew 14.3% to Rs 88,620 crore on stronger store operating metrics and a 2.4-fold sequential jump in its hyper-local delivery business. It earned Rs 3,545 crore in net income during the quarter.
These gains were partly offset by softer commodity prices and margins. Operating profit from refining arm fell 10% to Rs 15,080 crore as fuel prices were weaker and the cracks narrowed and the margins from polyester fell.
As a result oil-and-gas operating profit fell 8.6% to Rs 5,123 crore on lower KG-D6 output, weaker coal-bed-methane price and one-time maintenance costs. For full year, consolidated revenue rose 7.1% to Rs 10.71 lakh crore and operating margins rose 2.9% to `1.83 lakh crore, a net income of Rs 81,309 crore, up 2.9% YoY.
Of total pre-tax earnings from oil-and-gas stood at an all-time high of Rs 21,188 crore, those from retail arm crossed Rs 25,000 crore mark for first time. Profit from Jio Platforms topped Rs 25,000 crore, up 22%.
Describing FY25 as a challenging year for global business environment with weak macroeconomic conditions and a shifting geo-political landscape, Amabni said “focus on operational discipline, customer-centric innovation and fulfilling the nation’s growth requirements has helped us deliver a steady financial performance”.