Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has posted a consolidated revenue Rs 128,385 crores ($ 17.4 billion) for the quarter ended September 2020 and it is higher by 27.2% Q on Q. The net profit is Rs 10,602 crores ($ 1.4 billion) higher by 28.0%. In addition to petrochemicals, RIL posted a strong growth momentum in Grocery and Connectivity while Consumer Electronics and Fashion & Lifestyle.
The oil and gas business quarter revenue is R 64,431 crore ($ 8.7 billion) higher by 23.3%. The net profit is Rs 6,546 crore ($ 887 million) higher by 34.3%. Exports saw a growth of 5.5% for the quarter at Rs 34,501 crores ($ 4.7 billion). The Jio platforms revenue is Rs 21,708 crore ($ 2.9 billion) higher by 7.1%. The net profit is Rs 3,020 crores ($ 409 million) showing a growth of 19.8%. The total revenue for Reliance Retail for the quarter is Rs 41,100 crore ($ 5.6 billion) higher by 30.0%. The net profit rose by a whopping 125.8% at Rs 973 crores ($ 132 million).
On the COVID-19 impact, the company said that its Oil to Consumer (O2C) business has recovered pre Covid Level. The domestic polymer and polyester demand improved amidst easing of lockdown and revival of downstream operations. RIL achieved highest ever quarterly polymer domestic sales. The Indian oil product demand also improved by 11.3% QoQ. Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) demand was severely impacted due to air travel restrictions. Reliance BP Mobility Limited (RBML), a joint venture (JV) of RIL and British Petroleum, operated 1,406 fuel retail outlets, clocked a growth of 15.1% in High-Speed Diesel (HSD) and 55.4% in Motor Spirit (MS), beating the industry average of 5.3% and 41.1% respectively.
The Reliance malls were operating at 85% strength and the footfalls are still lower than pre-COVID levels, particularly across Fashion & Lifestyle and mall stores. The store expansion resumed with 232 stores being opened during the quarter, taking the current footprint of the business to 11,931 stores, spread over 29.7 million sq. ft. of retail space. The online fashion & lifestyle venture AJIO posted 4x growth in orders from pre-COVID levels.
The Wireless gross addition shows a strong sequential increase to 27.2 million as lockdown restrictions began to ease during the quarter. The monthly churn rate for wireless subscribers increased to 1.69% with follow-through impact of COVID on SIM consolidation and recharge cycle of the migrant population. The average revenue per user (ARPU) during the quarter of ₹ 145.0 per subscriber per month as against ₹ 140.3 per subscriber per month in the trailing quarter. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Jio Platforms Limited (Jio) along with its wholly-owned subsidiary Radisys Corporation announced expanded efforts to develop open and interoperable interface compliant architecture based 5G solutions with a virtualized RAN. The two companies jointly tested a 1 Gbps speed on the Reliance Jio 5GNR solution with a Tier-I carrier in the US. Jio UPI pan India rollout on MyJio was completed during the quarter to help secure financial transactions and bill payments across all Jio digital platforms.
The Consumer Electronics delivered a strong performance with revenues at 2x over the previous quarter, and notably double-digit growth over the previous year, despite lower footfalls. Growth was broad-based across categories, with laptops and productivity devices more than doubling and High-End TVs, Air Care and Appliances delivering strong growth.
In the media sector, the revenues for 2Q FY21 rose by 31.5% Q-o-Q as COVID-linked impact on ad-revenues receded over the quarter. Ad-revenues rebounded sharply and the news business’ advertising has fully recovered. The Entertainment advertising recovery is near-complete by the end of the quarter. The TV and Digital subscription revenues have been resilient. The company release states that the domestic subscription revenue continues to rise led by expanding TV & Digital distribution tie-ups.
RIL has entered online pharma business with RRVL acquiring a majority stake in “Netmeds”.