New Delhi: Reliance Industries Ltd on Thursday became the first Indian private sector company to report a quarterly profit of more than Rs 10,000 crore after record earnings from petrochemical, retail and telecom business offset a dip in refinery margins.
The oil-to-telecom conglomerate reported an 8.8 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit to Rs 10,251 crore, or Rs 17.3 per share, in the third quarter ended December 31, 2018, as compared to Rs 9,420 crore, or Rs 16 a share, in the same period of the previous financial year, the company said in a statement.
This is the highest quarterly profit by any private company. State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) holds the distinction of posting highest ever quarterly profit by any Indian firm when it had reported a net profit of Rs 14,512.81 crore in January-March 2013.
IOC net profit in the fourth quarter of 2012-13 fiscal was abnormally high because of receipt of fuel subsidy for the full year in one quarter.
Reliance Industries saw its revenue jump by 56 per cent to Rs 171,336 crore in October-December 2018.
The company opened more retail stores and added almost 28 million new subscribers to its Jio mobile phone service that helped increase the profitability of the venture as its traditional oil refining business witnessed margin pressures on falling international oil prices.
The petrochemical business saw pre-tax profits jump by 43 per cent to Rs 8,221 crore on producing higher volumes of polymer products and fibre intermediates. It saw pre-tax earnings from the business decline for the third quarter in a row. Pre-tax earnings fell 18 per cent to Rs 5,055 crore as margins dipped. It earned $8.8 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel as compared to a gross refining margin of $11.6 per barrel in October-December 2017.
