Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries has published its financial results for the quarter that ended in December 2022 wherein the company reported a marginal 0.6% YoY growth in profits which was affected by the windfall taxes levied by the government.
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries reported gross revenues of Rs 240,963 crores, up 14.8% YoY. Segment results were as follows:-
- Jio Platforms= Quarterly revenues at Jio came in at Rs 29,195 crores, up 20.8% YoY as the company saw a steady increase in the number of subscribers (added 5.3 million new users) and ARPU (up 17.5%). The EBITDA margin of the vertical grew 170 bps as EBITDA for the quarter was Rs 12,519 crores, up 25.1% YoY.
- Reliance Retail= Revenues from Isha Ambani-led retail segment stood at Rs 67,623 crores, up 17.2% YoY as the subsidiary opened 700+ new stores during the quarter. The Pharma vertical showed the sharpest growth as revenues from pharmaceutical operations surged 93%!
- Oil-to-Chemicals= RIL’s O2C segment continued to be the greatest contributor to the company’s revenues as the same came in at Rs 144,630 crores, up 10%. Exports grew 21% YoY as EBITDA registered a marginal growth of 2.9% on account of the windfall taxes levied on transportation fuels.
- Oil and Gas= Comparing by growth, Oil and Gas segments saw the greatest growth during the quarter as revenues, which grew to Rs 4,474 crores saw a growth of 74.8% YoY. Moreover, EBITDA spiked 90.9% YoY with the EBITDA margin coming in at 86.7%.
- Media= The conglomerate’s media business had the lowest revenue from all its segments, but it had significant growth during the quarter, up 12.5% YoY to Rs 2,166 crores. However, the EBITDA of the same declined by 86.7% YoY due to a drop in ad revenues.
On the other hand, total expenses surged 16% to Rs 200,733 crores. Finance and Depreciation costs saw the greatest surge during the quarter. Financing costs surged 36.4% to Rs 5,201 crores during the year and the same was on account of interest rate hikes and greater loan balances.
Depreciation costs reported a growth of 32.4% during the relevant quarter due to an increased asset base and higher utilization in the Digital Services business. EBITDA for the quarter was Rs 38,460 crores, up 13.5% YoY.
However, profit for the quarter ending in December 2022 was Rs 17,806 crores, up only by 0.6% YoY as it was affected to the tune of Rs 1,898 crores due to a Special Additional Excise Duty levied on the export of transportation fuels.
Brokerage firm CLSA believes that both Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail could have their IPO in the next 12-18 months but the same has not been confirmed. The stock of Reliance Industries closed at Rs 2,329 per share on Friday,
Article by Aman Agarwal.