Reliance Industries Ltd posts biggest quarterly profit in eight years
Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd, India’s biggest oil refiner, said that it is looking to buy more crude from Iran as the company seeks to rebuild ties to benefit from shorter shipping distances.
The company had made small purchases from Iran in the current quarter and was currently engaged in talks for bigger supplies, indicating that it could also get into a long-term supply contract, said V Srikanth, Reliance’s joint chief financial officer.
“We have had engagements with Iran before the sanctions and they have grades of crude that are attractive to us from where we are,” Mr Srikanth said at a news conference on Friday.
India is set to import at least 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian oil in the year from April 1, with refiners looking to ramp up purchases after the sanctions targeting Tehran ended in January, sources had told Reuters.
The comments came as Reliance posted its biggest quarterly profit in over eight years on better margins in the company’s core refining and petrochemical business.
Reliance, controlled by Mukesh Ambani, reported an estimate-topping net profit of Rs 7,398 crore ($1.11 billion) for the Jan-March period — its highest quarterly profit since December 2007.
The gross refining margin on each barrel of crude processed was $10.80 a barrel, up from $10.1 per barrel a year ago, Reliance said. Mr Srikanth said the company will be able to sustain margins at above $10 — one of the highest among global refiners — in the current financial year.
Reliance, which still gets 95 per cent of its profit from oil and petrochemicals, has been aggressively spending in recent years, making forays into retail and telecom and last month launched an e-commerce company.
Meanwhile, RIL’s retail arm reported a 17.5 per cent increase in pre-tax profit at Rs 235 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31. Reliance Retail had reported a PBDIT (profit before depreciation and income tax) of Rs 200 crore in the same period last fiscal. Its turnover rose 20.7 per cent to Rs 5,781 crore in the quarter under review as against Rs 4,788 crore in the year-ago period.
