India's Reliance posts record quarterly profit on petchem, refining boost
(Reuters) - Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries posted a record quarterly profit, driven by growth in its petrochemicals and refining business, while its telecoms group Jio notched up a fifth consecutive profitable quarter.
The telecoms business is central to the ambition of Chairman Mukesh Ambani - Asia’s richest man - to make Reliance’s consumer businesses as big as its energy operations, which contribute the bulk of group revenue and profit.
In the last two years, Jio has used cut-price data and free voice calls to cornered over 250 million subscribers, leaving rivals nursing losses.
Jio posted a nearly 65 percent jump in profit to 8.31 billion rupees ($117 million).
In the conglomerate’s refining and petrochemicals unit, which contribute around three-quarters of overall revenue and profits, revenue rose 47 percent and 37 percent respectively.
On a standalone basis, which includes primarily refining and petrochemicals, Reliance’s third-quarter profit rose 5.6 percent to 89.28 billion rupees.
Gross refining margin (GRM)- the profit earned on each barrel of crude processed - was $8.8 per barrel for the quarter, outperforming the benchmark Singapore complex margin by $4.5 per barrel.
The benchmark GRMs have come down to multi-year lows in the third quarter to below $2 per barrel, hitting all refining companies globally.
Reliance’s refinery in the western state of Gujarat is the world’s biggest single-location refinery, with a capacity to process 1.36 million barrels per day of crude.
Net profit on a consolidated basis rose to 102.5 billion rupees ($1.44 billion) for October-December, beating analyst average estimate of 96.48 billion rupees,
Reliance’s consolidated revenue grew 56.4 percent to 1.60 trillion rupees. ($1 = 71.0340 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Krishna V Kurup and Tanvi Mehta; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Alexander Smith
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