Reliance Industries (RIL) earned record profits of £804.6 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017 on higher earnings from its refining and petrochemicals business. Consolidated profit rose 12.3%, topping analysts estimates. The company's consolidated profit in Q4FY16 was £716.7 million.
Operating profit increased 6.4% to £1.42 billion in the three months through March 31 from £1.33 billion a year earlier. The energy-to-telecom enterprise's Q4FY17 revenues expanded 45.2% to £ 9.29 billion compared to its Q4FY16 revenues of £6.39 billion. Exports too were up 25.2% to £ 3.87 billion.
RIL, operator of the world's biggest oil refining complex, earned $11.5 on each barrel of crude it processed in Q4FY17 compared to $10.8 a year earlier. The company derives more than 90% of its profit from refining and petrochemicals businesses but over the last several quarters it has been spending aggressively to build new businesses such as telecom.
Subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio), which had launched 4G mobile services last September and that has been offering services for free till recently, reported a loss of £2.25 million for the six month period ended March 31 compared to a £746,000 loss in the same period of FY 2016. Its revenue, including other income fell 76% from £225,000 to £54,000 in the October to March period. From April onwards, RJio, which has gained 108.9 million subscribers on its network, has started to charge for its services even as it continues to offer free voice calls. In a statement, Reliance chief Mukesh Ambani said: “Jio is witnessing the largest migration from free to paid services in history.”
Employee costs at RIL jumped 28.3% to £236.6 million in Q4FY17 as against £184.4 million in the corresponding period of last fiscal due to increased employee base and provisioning for performance linked incentives. Other income declined marginally from £199.6 million to £193.6 million in Q4FY17. Debt rose to £19.60 billion while cash on its books declined to £7.72 billion. In fiscal 2017, RIL had spent £11.4 billion to expand its petrochemicals, refining and telecom units.
