RIL Q4 profit rises 17.25% to Rs 7,320 cr

 Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Industries reported a 17.25% increase in standalone net profit for the fourth quarter at Rs 7,320 crore compared with Rs 6,243 crore in the comparable quarter last fiscal.

Total income from operations for the company on a standalone basis, however, declined 10.85 % to Rs 49,957 crore as against Rs 56,043 crore in the fourth quarter of FY15. Gross refining margins for the company declined to $10.8/barrel (bbl) as against $11.5/bbl in the sequential quarter. GRMs were, however, higher when compared with the last quarter in the previous fiscal ($10.1/bbl).

“FY 2015-16 has been a year of outstanding achievement for our downstream hydrocarbon businesses, notwithstanding persisting global economic uncertainty. Refining and petrochemicals delivered record operating and financial performances. Our refineries sustained double-digit GRMs and record levels of utilisation through the year. Our balanced petrochemical portfolio, across products and feedstocks, helped capture the benefit of vastly improved naphtha cracking economics and favourable polymer markets,” RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh D Ambani said.

Reliance Industries has said that it will spend around Rs 1-1.15 lakh crore as capital expenditure in FY17. “Last year (FY16) we had spent around Rs 1.13 lakh crore as capex, a major chunk of which was towards petroleum and refining expansion and Reliance Jio,” an RIL official said. This year, RIL planning to spend around Rs 1-1.15 lakh crore as capex.
 As far as the launch of Reliance Jio is concerned, the company said that it is looking to scale up before commercial launch.

“We have around 0.5 million customers currently. We want to scale it up to a few million before we will look at going commercially live,” a company official said.