Reliance Industries Q1 Results: From Highest-Ever Profit To Ebitda Miss — Key Highlights

The Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd. posted its first-quarter results on Friday with a mixed bag of numbers.

While the headline profit saw a sharp 39% jump quarter-on-quarter to Rs 26,994 crore, driven primarily by a one-time gain from the sale of its stake in Asian Paints, underlying operating performance across most business segments remained under pressure.

Here are a few of the important points to note from RIL's first quarter results:

Net profit of Rs 26,994 crore, which came in above Street estimates of Rs 19,775 crore. It included other income of Rs 8,924 crore from the sale of listed investments, including proceeds from RIL's stake in Asian Paints. This, according to the company, is the highest-ever consolidated net profit posted by the company.

In its press release on Friday, the company also added that the Ebitda of Rs 42,905 crore is the highest-ever quarterly Ebitda. However, the Ebitda has fallen 2% quarter-on-quarter and is below estimates due to the weak performance in all segments apart from Jio.

The Ebitda margin, however, improved slightly to 17.6% from 16.8% in the previous quarter.

Revenue from the oil and gas segment fell 5% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 6,103 crore from Rs 6,440 crore. On a year-on-year basis, revenue declined 1.2% due to lower KGD6 gas volumes from natural decline in production, lower realisations from coal bed methane gas, and weaker crude price realisations.

Ebitda was lower on the back of reduced gas volumes and pricing.

Revenue from the oil-to-chemicals business declined 6% to Rs 1.55 lakh crore from Rs 1.65 lakh crore. The fall was due to lower crude oil prices and reduced volumes caused by a planned shutdown. Segment revenues were supported by higher domestic placement of transportation fuels through Jio-bp.

Segment Ebitda declined due to maintenance shutdowns and inventory losses, continuing to weigh on overall performance.

The conglomerate's outstanding debt for the quarter declined to Rs 3.38 lakh crore, from the earlier Rs 3.48 lakh crore in the quarter ended March. However, it has increased from Rs 3.05 lakh crore in the same quarter last year.

Net debt marginally increased to Rs 1,17,581 crore from Rs 1,17,083 crore in the previous quarter, as capital investments continued.

The digital services arm delivered in-line results, with revenue rising 2% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 30,882 crore and Ebitda growing 5% to Rs 16,690 crore. Ebitda margin expanded to 54%. Net profit rose marginally to Rs 6,711 crore.

Subscriber base hit 49.8 crore, the highest net addition in five quarters. ARPU rose 1.3% to Rs 208.8, reflecting the lingering impact of the tariff hike taken four quarters ago, though the ARPU momentum appears to be slowing.

Retail business faced its sharpest sequential decline in five quarters, with revenue falling 5% and Ebitda also weakening. Margins remained flat for the third consecutive quarter, indicating rising pressures on profitability despite scale.