India’s Reliance rakes in $100bn annual revenue

After reporting strong quarterly results across its energy, telecoms, and retail businesses, Reliance Industries became the first Indian company to cross $100 billion in annual revenues.

Between January and March, the conglomerate, which is owned by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, reported a net profit of 162.03 billion rupees ($2.1 billion), up 22.5 percent from the same period the previous year.

Revenues from operations increased 36.8% year on year to 2.12 trillion rupees, owing to the legacy energy business as well as newer ventures like retail.

Gross revenue for the fiscal year ended March 31 surpassed 7.93 trillion rupees ($104.6 billion) thanks to income in the quarter.

Higher crude oil prices helped Reliance’s oil refinery and petrochemicals business, which accounts for more than half of total income, grow 44.2 percent year on year to 1.46 trillion rupees.

Higher gas prices helped the energy giant’s smaller oil and gas exploration and production business grow by 136.8% year on year to 20 billion rupees.

However, India’s intervention in the quarter to keep domestic fuel prices low despite global oil prices skyrocketing hurt Reliance’s nascent petrol pump partnership with British oil and gas major BP, according to the company.

Even as its customer base shrank by 10.9 million subscribers in the quarter, Reliance Jio’s net profit increased 22.9 percent to 43.13 billion rupees, boosted by tariff hikes implemented in December 2021.

The early summer and strong demand for clothing and groceries helped Reliance’s retail business reach a new all-time high of 580.17 billion rupees.

Reliance’s multibillion-dollar fortune has been built on oil and petrochemicals, but the company has recently expanded into new areas such as telecoms and retail. In Mumbai, the company’s shares fell 0.74 percent ahead of Friday’s earnings announcement.

Picture Courtesy: Google/Images are subject to copyright