By Sethuraman N R
(Reuters) -India’s Reliance Industries beat estimates for fourth-quarter profit on Friday, as strong performance in its retail and digital businesses offset weakness in its oil-to-chemicals (O2C) unit.
The Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate posted a consolidated profit of 194.07 billion Indian rupees ($2.27 billion) for the quarter ended March 31, beating analysts’ expectations of 188.77 billion rupees, according to LSEG data.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) at the company’s mainstay O2C business fell 10% due to weakness in transportation fuel cracks, the company said.
However, EBITDA for its digital services segment, which includes telecom unit Jio, surged 18%.
Jio Platforms posted a 25.7% rise in quarterly profit from a year earlier, helped by cellular tariff hikes implemented last year.
Jio Infocomm’s average revenue per user (ARPU) – a key telecom metric – rose 13.5% to 206.2 rupees.
Net additions continued to improve following the impact of the tariff hike, with 6.1 million subscribers added in the January-March quarter, the company said.
The retail segment’s EBITDA rose 14%, primarily driven by improved efficiencies and a better product mix, the company said.
Reliance Retail and Jio have powered the company’s earnings over the past two quarters, as the energy segment has been hit by lower margins and weaker demand.
The Jamnagar complex, which houses two refineries with a combined capacity of about 1.4 million barrels per day, has historically been the powerhouse of Reliance’s O2C operations and a key profit driver.
However, a decline in both refining and chemical margins has weighed on the O2C segment in fiscal year 2024–25.
“FY 2025 has been a challenging year for the global business environment, with weak macroeconomic conditions and a shifting geopolitical landscape … Significant demand-supply imbalances in downstream chemicals markets have led to multi-year low margins,” Chairman Mukesh Ambani said in a statement.
The company has also commissioned a gigawatt (GW) scale of solar photovoltaic (PV) module making assembly line, Chief Financial Officer V Srikanth said on an earnings call.
The new line is part of the company’s aim to set up a 10 GW per annum capacity end-to-end solar PV modules making factory in Jamnagar.
(Reporting by Sethuraman NR; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
