NE BUSINESS BUREAU
MUMBAI, JAN 18
Reliance Industries Limited on Friday reported a 13.5 per cent rise in net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2019, after a turnaround in oil refining business coupled with the continued rise of retail and telecom arms. According to a company release, Mukesh Ambani-led oil-to-telecom conglomerate declared consolidated net profit of Rs 11,640 crore for the quarter under review, as opposed to Rs 10,251 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
This is the highest quarterly net profit earned by any private company, surpassing its own previous best of Rs 11,262 crore in the July-September 2019 period.
While oil refining margins rose after six straight quarters of decline, the company opened 415 more retail stores and added 3.7 crore subscribers to its Jio mobile phone service that helped increase the profitability of the venture. But the weakness in its traditional petrochemical businesses continued.
The operator of the world’s largest oil refining complex saw pre-tax earnings from the business rise 12 percent to Rs 5,657 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal year.
It earned $9.2 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel as compared to a gross refining margin (GRM) of $8.8 per barrel in the October-December 2018. The GRM was, however, lower than $9.4 per barrel earned in July-September 2019.
“The third-quarter results for our energy business reflects the weak global economic environment and volatility in energy markets. Within our O2C chain, downstream petrochemicals profitability was impacted by weak margins across products with subdued demand in well-supplied markets. Refining segment performance improved in a difficult operating environment given our continuous focus on cost positions, high operating rates, and product placement,” RIL Chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani said.
Despite repeating record production of 9.9 million tonnes, the petrochemical business saw pre-tax profit drop 28.5 percent to Rs 5,880 crore on fall in product prices. Reliance’s twin refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat processed 18.1 million tonnes of crude oil, marginally higher than 18 million tonnes a year back.
Loss in the oil and gas exploration and production business widened to Rs 366 crore from Rs 185 crore in October-December 2018.
