Reliance quarterly profit falls 23 pct

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd said on Thursday profit over the last three months fell about 23 percent, roughly matching analysts' estimates.

Consolidated net profit fell to 72.06 billion rupees ($1.08 billion) for the three months to Sept. 30 from 93.45 billion rupees a year earlier, Reliance, controlled by India's richest man Mukesh Ambani, said in a statement on Thursday. Analysts on average had expected a profit of 72.2 billion rupees, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.

The company restated year-ago quarter profit, which had been boosted by a one-off income, as it moved to a new accounting system.

Revenue rose 9.6 percent from a year earlier to 816.51 billion rupees.

The company's refining and petrochemicals business witnessed stronger volumes growth, Reliance said.

Gross refining margin, or profit earned on each barrel of crude processed -- a key profitability gauge for a refiner -- was $10.1 per barrel for the quarter.

Reliance gets 95 percent of its profit from oil and petrochemicals, but has been spending aggressively to expand into new areas such as retail, telecoms and e-commerce.

In September, its ambitious Reliance Jio Infocomm unit started offering commercial 4G telecoms services. ($1 = 66.7819 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)