MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's Reliance Industries (RIL) said its quarterly profit doubled, led by a rebound in its petrochemicals and retail businesses, but fell short of analysts' estimates as costs jumped 10%, reported Reuters.
The oil-to-telecoms conglomerate, led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, said consolidated profit climbed 108% to 132.27 billion rupees (USD1.79 billion) in the three months to March 31. Analysts on average had expected 134.91 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv data.
Revenue at Reliance's oil-to-chemicals unit - home to both its refining and petrochemicals operations - rose 4.5% in the March quarter. The Mumbai-headquartered company benefited from pent-up demand globally for petrochemical products like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics, as business activity began to pick up after a coronavirus-hit 2020.
Reliance has built leading businesses in telecom and retail in recent years to diversify away from its mainstay energy arm, which has been recovering slowly from a coronavirus-driven slump in demand. Its retail business of more than 12,000 stores and supermarkets posted a 20% jump in revenue as shoppers bought more groceries and apparel, resulting in all-time high revenues in those two categories, Reliance said. Still, India's ongoing massive second wave of the virus, which has spurred lockdowns in many cities, had hit footfalls at stores as well as consumer sentiment, it said.
As MRC informed before, amid a surging second wave of COVID-19 in the country, RIL has increased output of medical oxygen to 1,000 mt/day, making it India's largest producer of medical-grade liquid oxygen from a single location. Reliance ramped up production from near-zero to 1,000 tonnes per day and now produces over 11% of the country's oxygen demand. It has rallied its resources to meet the daily need of over 1 lakh people every day.
We remind that RIL shut its PVC plant in India for maintenance in April 2021. The unit in Dahej with an annual capacity of 315,000 tons/year was taken offline by 5 April 2021 and resumed operations on 20 April.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall PVC production reached 259,400 tonnes in the first three months of 2021, down 3% year on year. All producers decreased their output over the stated period.
Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. The company produces polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride and other petrochemical products.
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