JOIN USAided by good gross refining margins (GRMs) of $10.8/barrel (bbl), Reliance Industries reported a 3.6% rise in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, at Rs 7,506 crore, against Rs 7,245 crore in the same quarter of last year.
Consolidated turnover for the company during the quarter increased 16.1% to Rs 84,189 crore, compared with Rs 72,513 crore in Q3FY16. Increase in revenue is primarily on account of increase in prices of refining and petrochemical products led by 13% increase in Brent crude prices. Turnover was also boosted by robust growth in retail business, the company said.
“Our robust integrated platform, sound operational processes and business portfolio aligned to the needs of emerging India enabled us to deliver another record performance in challenging market conditions. The refining business has delivered eight consecutive quarters of double-digit GRMs, benefiting from the global demand for transportation fuels and improved product cracks,” RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said.
As far as refining and marketing segment is concerned, revenues from the segment grew 7.5% to Rs 61,693 crore, compared with Rs 57,385 crore. Segment EBIT was down 4.3% at Rs 6,194, crore against Rs 6,474 crore in the corresponding period of last year account of lower volumes and decline in GRMs. GRM for the quarter stood at $10.8/bbl, against $11.5/bbl in Q3FY16 and $10.1/bbl in Q2FY17.
Revenues from the petrochemicals segment during the quarter increase 17.8% to Rs 22,854 crore, compared with Rs 19,398 crore in Q3FY16. The rise was mainly on account of increase in prices across polymers and polyester chain. Petrochemicals segment EBIT increased sharply by 25.5% to Rs 3,301 crore, against Rs 2,631 crore in Q3FY17, supported by favourable product deltas and marginal volume growth, the company said.
Jio customer base crosses 72.4 m
Reliance Jio has said its customer base has already crossed 72.4 million as of December 31, but did not commit itself to meet the 100-million target by March, when its second round of promotional offers end.
When asked how much of the new customers are port-in users, the company said some of them are port-in numbers, but refused to quantify the same.