(LiveMint)
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-helmed Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) reported its highest ever quarterly net profit of Rs9,435 crore, beating Street estimates, for the quarter ended 31 March. Revenue at the energy-to-telecom conglomerate rose 39% year-on-year to Rs1.29 trillion, buoyed by a rise in petrochemical sales and increase in global crude prices leading to better realizations in refined products. For the full year, RIL’s net profit stood at Rs36,075 crore, up 20.6% from 2016-17.
A Bloomberg poll of seven analysts had projected RIL to report a net profit of Rs9,379 crore for the March quarter. However, the performance of the telecom arm, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, remain subdued with the company posting a mere 1% growth in net profit on a sequential basis as the ongoing tariff war, which Jio triggered, brought down its average revenue per user to Rs137 in the March quarter from Rs154 a quarter earlier.
“The Arpu (average revenue per user) came down… due to price action earlier in the quarter (March quarter),” said Anshuman Thakur, head of strategy and planning at Jio. “We have had a tariff reduction of about Rs50 over three months, which we have more than made up with subscriber growth.”
