Reliance Industries today reported 9.2 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 2,709 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2006, accompanied by 36 per cent growth in revenue to Rs 29,550 crore. | |
| This was made possible by improved petrochemicals margins that offset lower refinery margins and the shut-down of the company's Hazira plant for 40 days due to floods. |
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| While the petrochemicals volume stood at 3.96 million tonnes, growing year on year by 17 per cent, the margins grew by 20-40 per cent for at least four of the products "" paraxylene, polypropylene, PTA and polyethylene. |
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| Most analysts said the numbers were either in sync with market expectations or better. While the market was expecting losses due to the Hazira shut-down to be in the range of Rs 100-150 crore, Reliance Industries reported a loss of Rs 34 crore. |
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| The company registered an export surge, which enabled it to divert its domestic products to the export markets as retail outlets closed because of the increased prices of motor spirits. |
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| Petrochemicals volumes and margins were both above market expectations. News agency Reuters quoted KR Choksey Vice-President Jigar Shah as saying: "The results are in line with the expectation. We had expected the company to generate good numbers. I think the petrochemicals business has helped and the profit performance has been really good." |
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| Reliance, which operates a 660,000 barrels-per-day refinery in Jamnagar, said its gross refining margins stood at $9.1 a barrel in the July-September quarter, down from $10.4 a barrel in the same quarter last year. |
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| The refining margins, which deliver more than two-thirds of Reliance's revenues, were still higher than the benchmark Asian refining margins, thanks to the company's ability to process cheaper crude and make high-quality products. |
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| "EBIT margins were lower primarily due to softening of gross refining margins," the company said in a statement. |
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| Reliance, which has a market value of more than $37 billion, earned $12.4 from each barrel of oil it refined in its first quarter till end of June. |
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| The company also reported a higher than expected refining volume of 8.2 million tonnes. |
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