BENGALURU: The Mukesh D Ambani led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) organized retail segment – Reliance Retail, continued its growth momentum and profitability in the quarter ended 31 December 2016 (Q3-17, current quarter), while its digital services offering Jio has broken all records in terms of subscriber acquisition.
The RIL earnings release for Q3-17 says that Jio has created a world record by crossing 5 crore (50 million) subscribers in 83 days of operations. The company says that this subscriber addition rate is the fastest achieved by any company in the world including the likes of Facebook, WhatsApp and Skype. It says further that Jio continues its rapid ramp up of subscriber base and as of 31 December 2016, in less than 4 months from commencement of services, there were 7.24 crore or 72.4 million subscribers on the network.
Ambani, said, “I am also delighted by our country’s eagerness to adopt to a digital life as witnessed by the record breaking launch of Jio. Its comprehensive ecosystem has enabled millions of Indians to lead a richer life through its offerings.”
Organised Retail
RIL’s Organised Retail segment revenue in the current quarter increased 47.2 percent year-over-year (y-o-y) to Rs 8,688 crore as compared to Rs 5,901 crore and increased 7.5 percent quarter-over-quarter (q-o-q) from Rs 8,079 crore.
The segment’s EBIT increased 55 percent y-o-y to Rs 231 crore from Rs 149 crore and increased 42.6 percent q-o-q from Rs 162 crore.
The company says that overall impact from demonetization has been positive for core retail business with favourable long-term implications for modern trade. It says further that according to Nielsen, Reliance Fresh and Smart stores grew faster than the modern trade during the demonetization period and its share of trade went up from 26.2 percent pre demonetization to 27.8 percent post demonetization
RIL says that during the quarter, Reliance Retail added 111 stores across various store concepts. As on 31 December 2016, Reliance Retail operated 3,553 stores across 686 cities with an area of over 13.25 million square feet.
RIL numbers
RIL achieved a turnover of 84,189 crore ($ 12.4 billion), an increase of 16.1 percent, as compared to Rs 72,513 crorein the corresponding period of the previous year. The company says that increase in revenue is primarily on account of increase in prices of refining and petrochemical products led by 13 percent increase in Brent crude prices. Turnover was also boosted by robust growth in retail business.
Operating profit before other income and depreciation increased by 2.7 percent on a y-o-y basis to Rs 11,552 crore ($ 1.7 billion) from Rs 11,248 crore in the previous year. The company attribute the growth to strong operating performance from petrochemicals businesses, sustained strength in refining business and favourable exchange rate movement. This was partially offset by losses in Oil & Gas business due to lower volumes and weak domestic price environment.
Profit after tax was higher by 3.6 percent at Rs 7,506 crore ($ 1.1 billion) as against Rs 7,245 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.
Basic earnings per share (EPS) excluding exceptional items for the quarter ended 30th September 2016 was Rs 25.4 as against Rs 24.6 in the corresponding period of the previous year.
Note:The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR).The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:
(a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.
(b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.
