RIL posts highest ever quarterly profit of Rs 11,640 crore in Q3

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) on Friday said to have posted the net profit of Rs 11,640 crore, the highest quarterly profit ever, in the third quarter of the current financial year.

RIL had registered the net profit of Rs 10,251 crore in Q3 of the previous year, which jumped by 13.5 per cent in the third quarter of the current fiscal.

However, according to an official release, RIL's overall revenue declined by 1.40 per cent to Rs 1.69 lakh crore from Rs 1.71 lakh crore in the year-ago period.

Speaking about the result, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Mukesh Ambani said: "The third-quarter results for our energy business reflects the weak global economic environment and volatility in energy markets."

"Within our O2C chain, downstream petrochemicals profitability was impacted by weak margins across products with subdued demand in well-supplied markets," he added.

He said the performance of the refining segment also improved in a "difficult operating environment given our continuous focus on cost positions, high operating rates and product placement."

A decrease in revenue is primarily on account of 10.6 per cent decline in O2C (order to cash) business revenues, with lower product price realization and 6.6 per cent fall in Brent crude price.

"This was partially offset by continuing growth momentum in consumer businesses. Digital services and the retail business recorded an increase of 36.2 per cent and 27.4 per cent respectively, in revenue during the quarter compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year," said the release.

"Exports from RIL's India operations were lower by 13.7 per cent at Rs 53,804 crore as against Rs 62,378 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year due to lower price realization from Petrochemical and Refining business," it added.

Ambani said that he was pleased with the progress of the consumer businesses which continue to establish new milestones every quarter.

"We saw consistent same-store sales growth and record footfall across our stores driven by our compelling proposition of great shopping experience and superior value," he added.