Reliance Industries posted resilient performance in the fiscal fourth quarter, with net profit (pre-minority) rising 6.4 percent from a year earlier, as strong growth in its digital and retail units offset softer earnings from its energy businesses.
The company's net profit attributable to shareholders grew 2.4 percent to Rs 19,407 crore for Q4 FY25, beating Street expectations. According to a Moneycontrol poll of brokerage estimates, RIL's Q4 net profit was pegged at Rs 18,820 crore.
Revenue for the three months ended 31 March climbed 8.8 percent from a year ago to Rs 2.88 lakh crore, driven by company’s digital services, retail and oil-to-chemicals business, RIL said on Friday. Consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation rose 3.6 percent to a record Rs 48,737 crore.
Pre-minority net profit increased to Rs 22,611 crore, while profit before tax rose 5 percent to Rs 29,103 crore. Quarterly capital expenditure rose to Rs 36,041 crore but remained fully covered by cash generation of nearly Rs 40,000 crore, leaving net debt broadly steady at Rs 1.17 lakh crore.
Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited said: “FY2025 has been a challenging year for the global business environment, with weak macro-economic conditions and a shifting geo-political landscape. Our focus on operational discipline, customer-centric innovation and fulfilling India’s growth requirements has helped Reliance deliver a steady financial performance during the year."
Consumer engines firing
EBITDA from digital services surged 18.5 percent as the company’s 5G subscriber base swelled to roughly 191 million and average revenue per user rose to Rs 206.2 after tariff revisions. Retail EBITDA grew 14.3 percent on stronger store operating metrics and a 2.4-fold sequential jump in its hyper-local delivery business.
"In FY25, the business focused on a strategic recalibration of our store network, aimed at improving operational efficiencies and long-term sustainability. Our enhanced product catalogue and user experience across all formats, strengthened customer engagement. The quick hyperlocal deliveries initiative has also gained significant traction in the market, connecting strongly with the users. Our suite of omni-channel offerings and wide-spread presence will enable Reliance Retail to continue delivering superior value to all its customers," said Ambani.
The fast-moving consumer goods unit, launched only two years ago, booked Rs 11,450 crore in sales, making it the fastest-growing FMCG entrant in India.
Those gains were partly offset by softer commodity cycles. O2C EBITDA fell 10 percent from a year earlier to Rs 15,080 crore due to sharp fall in transportation fuel cracks and lower polyester chain margins, though higher refinery utilisation and feedstock flexibility offset the decline.
The throughput of the oil-to-chemicals business hit a record 80.5 million tonnes in FY25, with saleable output of 71.2 million tonnes as both refineries ran near peak utilisation. The oil-to-chemicals business recorded increased domestic fuel placements, with gasoline volumes up 42 percent, gasoil up 33 percent and aviation turbine fuel up by 62 percent.
"The Oil to Chemicals business posted a resilient performance despite considerable volatility in energy
markets. Significant demand-supply imbalances in downstream chemicals markets have led to multi-year
low margins. Our business teams ensured optimization of integrated operations and feedstock costs to
enhance margin capture across value chains. The Oil & Gas business recorded its highest ever annual
EBITDA led by higher production from our KGD6 and CBM blocks," RIL chairman commented.
Oil-and-gas EBITDA dropped 8.6 percent to Rs 5,123 crore on lower KG-D6 output, a weaker coal-bed-methane price and one-time maintenance costs; segment margins slid 720 basis points to 79.5 percent.
Full year earnings
For FY25, consolidated revenue rose 7.1 percent to Rs 10.71 lakh crore and EBITDA rose 2.9 percent to Rs 1.83 lakh crore. Net profit grew 2.9 percent to Rs 81,309 crore. Oil-and-gas EBITDA reached an all-time high Rs 21,188 crore, while the retail arm’s EBITDA crossed Rs 25,000 crore for the first time. Jio Platforms’ profit topped Rs 25,000 crore, up 22 percent.
Net worth record
Reliance has now added another feather to its cap: After becoming the first Indian company to surpass Rs 10 lakh crore in annual revenue and Rs 20 lakh crore in market capitalization last year, it has crossed the Rs 10 lakh crore mark in net worth as well.
The company’s four main segments—O2C, Oil & Gas, Retail, and Jio—all reported robust operating performance.
Oil-to-chemicals
Revenue for the quarter for the company's oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business grew by 15.4 percent to Rs 1.64 lakh crore, from Rs 1.42 lakh crore in the year ago period, due to higher volumes and increased domestic product placement. Ebitda for the O2C business stood at Rs 15,080 crore in the March quarter
The O2C business includes refining, petrochemicals, fuel retailing through Reliance BP Mobility Ltd, aviation fuel and bulk wholesale marketing.
The company does not report its gross refining margins (GRMs) separately but has traditionally outperformed the benchmark Singapore GRMs.
For the fiscal year, revenue of the O2C business stood at Rs 6.26 lakh crore, up 11 percent YoY.
Oil & Gas business
In the fourth quarter of FY25, the oil and gas business reported a quarterly Ebitda of Rs 5,123 crore.
Reliance’s oil and gas revenue came in at Rs 6,440 crore in Q4, mainly on account of higher volumes, partly offset by lower price realisation from KG D6 Field.
The average price realized for KGD6 gas was $ 9.65/MMBTU in FY25 vis-à-vis $ 10.1/MMBTU in FY24, while the average price realised for CBM gas was $ 10.95/MMBTU in FY25 vis-à-vis $ 14.43/MMBTU in FY24.
“We should be on steady ground in terms of gas prices in the coming years. There will be some amount of volatility, but we feel from an Indian market standpoint, it should be all right,” said Sanjay Roy, Executive Vice-President for Exploration and Production.
Srikanth Venkatachari, CFO, Reliance Industries commented that demand in the Indian market was good in FY25.
“Global oil demand rose by 1.2 million barrels per day in Q4. Domestic demand is expected to remain healthy. Gasoline demand was up by 7.5%,” he noted.
FY25 revenue grew by 3.2 percent on a YoY basis to Rs 25,211 crore, on account of higher volumes of KGD6 and CBM
EBITDA increased by 4.9 percent to Rs 21,188 crore on Y-o-Y basis tracking high revenues with improvement in margins, the company said.
Jio Platforms
Jio Platforms’ profit for the fourth quarter stood at Rs 7,022 crore, an increase of 25.7 percent from a profit of Rs 5,587 crore in the same quarter last year, driven by strong subscriber additions.
The telecom and streaming business segment’s revenue from operations rose 17.7 percent to Rs 33,986 crore in the March quarter.
The average revenue per user (ARPU), an important metric to measure the performance of telecom companies, also improved 13.5 percent to Rs 206.2 per user per month from a year earlier.
Jio added 6.1 million net subscribers during Q4 FY25.
“Jio has become the world’s largest data company with 191 million 5G users,” said Anshuman Thakur, Senior Vice President at Jio Platforms. According to Thakur, growing 5G subscriber mix and accelerated home connects is driving the company’s industry leading traffic growth.
“JioHome subscribers crossed 18 million, adding 1.5 million in the quarter, AirFiber subscribers crossed 5.6 million. In Home Wireline, 90% of industry net additions are being done by Jio, which is 5x higher than the nearest competitor in the trailing 6 months. Jio is on track to connect 100 million homes,” he added.
Revenue from operations for the full financial year 2023-24 grew to Rs 1.28 lakh crore from Rs 1.09 lakh a year ago.
Akash M Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm, said, “Jio continues to drive consistent outperformance in customer engagement with best-in-the-world network technologies and a wide bouquet of digital services for all Indians. Jio is proud to have served millions of users at world’s largest congregation of people, the Mahakumbh mela where its network scalability and flexibility was well demonstrated. Jio is working on enabling large scale AI infrastructure and services that will add an intelligence layer to all Jio services.”
Retail
Reliance Industries’ retail business EBITDA for the March quarter rose 14.3 percent to Rs 6,711 crore from a year earlier.
Gross revenue rose 15.7 percent to Rs 88,620 crore in the quarter.
Net profit for the quarter rose 29.1 percent to Rs 3,545 crore, compared to Rs 2,746 crore a year ago.
The business continued to grow its store footprint, opening 2,659 stores during the year. However, with store rationalisation, total store count was at 19,340 with total area of 77.4 million sq. ft.
The business recorded gross revenue of Rs 3.30 lakh crore for the year FY25, a growth of 7.9 percent over last year.
Retail business ebitda grew by 8.6 percent to Rs 25,053 crore in FY25, while net profit increased to Rs 12,388 crore in FY25 from Rs 11,127 crore a year ago.
Isha M. Ambani, Executive Director, Reliance Retail Ventures Limited, said “Reliance Retail delivered strong growth in revenue and profits, powered by improved efficiencies, innovative formats, a sharper product mix, and continued investments in technology and customer experience. We remain focused on shaping the future of retail with agility and purpose".
Dinesh Taluja, CFO, Reliance Retail, pointed out that the retail business’ consumer brands are having an exciting trajectory. “Campa and Independence are growing rapidly and Campa has already got double digit market share,” he noted.
On quick commerce, Taluja said that Reliance Retail’s under 30 min offering now has almost 2,000 stories, a much wider reach than any other quick commerce player. “These numbers will scale up in the coming years,” he added.
Taluja further added that the retail arm is seeing a strong demand for niche and premium products.
Commenting on expectations for consumer electronics sales for the summer, Taluja said that he expects AC sales to grow rapidly due to the prediction of a hot summer. “We posted a healthy mid single digit growth in consumer electronics amid early summer onset,” he noted.
Disclaimer: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
Find the best of Al News in one place, specially curated for you every weekend.
Stay on top of the latest tech trends and biggest startup news.
