Reliance Industries reports Rs 5,511 crore net profit in Q3

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), owner of the world's biggest refining complex, Friday beat Street estimates by reporting a marginal increase in third-quarter net profit, helped by a rise in revenue from its non-core business.

Profit rose 0.2 per cent to Rs 5,511 crore, or Rs 17.10 a share, in the October-December quarter from Rs 5,502 crore, or Rs 17 a share, a year earlier, RIL said in a statement.

The markets expected profit to range between Rs 5,310 and Rs 5,350 crore. Earnings were also higher than the Rs 5,490 crore posted in the second quarter.

Sales rose 10.5 per cent to Rs 106,383 crore.

While natural gas production at its main Krishna Godavari field continued to slump and refining margins dropped, the company's income from other than its main operations rose 32 per cent to Rs 2,305 crore in October-December from Rs 1,740 crore a year earlier.

RIL, which operates two adjacent refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat, said it earned $7.6 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel compared with a gross refining margin of $9.6 per barrel in Q3 of the previous fiscal.

The margins were better than the Singapore average even though earnings before interest and taxes from the refining business was down 13.1 per cent as it processed less crude oil due to a maintenance shutdown at one of the plants.

Debt soared to Rs 81,330 crore at the end of Q3 from Rs 72,427 crore at the beginning of the financial year. At quarter end, it had a cash pile of Rs 88,705 crore, making the company debt-free on a net basis.

RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said the company has commissioned a new polyester facility in Silvassa, the first among the $12 billion worth of projects it had undertaken to expand in the core business of petrochemicals and oil and gas.

Before the earnings announcement, RIL shares dipped 0.07 per cent to Rs 884.55 at close on the BSE.