Key takeaways from RIL's fourth-quarter numbers

The net profit was up 22.5 per cent for Q4 on the back of key businesses – energy, telecom and retail – seeing growth. For the said quarter, the number stood at Rs 16,200 crore compared to Rs 13,227 crore for the corresponding period in the previous fiscal.

Its oil to chemicals (O2C) business saw revenue shoot up by 44.2 per cent to cross Rs 1.45 lakh crore and get past Rs lakh crore for FY22. EBITDA increased by 25 per cent, with margins dropping by 1.5 per cent (9.8 per cent from 11.3 per cent), which the company, attributed to the “base effect driven by higher feedstock and product prices.”

Jio’s customer base shrunk by almost 11 million to end the quarter at 410.2 million. Gross revenue for Jio Platforms, was, however, up by 21 per cent at Rs 26,139 crore, while EBITDA increased by 27.4 per cent. Higher data traffic by 48 per cent (closed at 24.6 billion GB) helped in offsetting the drop in subscribers apart from Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) being 10.5 per cent more at Rs 167.6 or a 21.3 per cent increase on a year-on-year basis.

At a consolidated level, Reliance Retail’s gross revenue took off by 23.3 per cent to get past Rs 58,000 crore. EBITDA saw a modest 2.4 per cent hike to close at Rs 3,705 crore. During the quarter, 793 stores opened across formats taking the total number of physical stores to 15,196. The total area of operation too was up at 41.6 million square feet from 33.8 million square feet.

Deals across businesses: The group’s deal story took a few critical steps during the quarter. Among the prominent ones were:

• An agreement with Abu Dhabi’s TA’AZIZ for the production of chemicals in addition to a foray into both traditional and unconventional resources
• Striking a joint venture with Sanmina for an electronic manufacturing hub in India
• Jio Platform’s $200 million investment in Glance for a lock screen platform
• Reliance Retail picking up an 89 per cent stake in Purple Panda Fashions
• The new energy business acquiring Sterling & Wilson Renewable Energy apart from Lithium Werks, a player in the battery business
• Viacom18 entering into a strategic partnership with Bodhi Tree Systems for Rs 13,500 crore to strengthen the entertainment business