Reliance Q1 net vaults 18% to Rs7,113 cr with record $11.5 refining margin

India's private sector oil giant Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) today reported consolidated net profit of Rs7,113 crore ($1.1 billion) for the April-June 2016-17 quarter, an 18.1 per cent jump from its net profit for the year-ago quarter, on the back of record refining earnings by the refining and petrochemicals segment.

Consolidated pre-tax profit (profit before depreciation, interest and tax) for the quarter rose 16.7 per cent to Rs13,589 crore ($2.0 billion), un-audited financial results for the quarter ended 30 June 2016 showed.

Revenue (turnover) for the quarter decreased by 13.4 per cent to Rs71,451 crore ($10.6 billion) amidst depressed oil and gas prices. Profit before depreciation, interest and taxes (PBDIT) increased by 16.7 per cent to Rs13,589 crore ($2.0 billion) while EBDT margin was up 241 basis points at 10.7 per cent.

Profit before tax (PBT) increased by 21.1 per cent to Rs9,658 crore ($1.4 billion)

The gross refining margin on each barrel of crude processed was $11.5 in the April-June 2016-17 quarter, compared with $10.4 a year earlier.

RIL said its standalone net profit for the April-June 2016-17 quarter increased by 18.5 per cent to Rs7,548 crore ($1.1 billion) although revenue (turnover) for the quarter decreased by 16.7 per cent to Rs59,493 crore ($8.8 billion).

Standalone exports decreased by 9.4 per cent to Rs33,282 crore ($4.9 billion).

In May 2016, Reliance signed agreements for the sale of its interest in Gulf Africa Petroleum and in June, the company signed the subscription and shareholders agreement for a joint venture with State Bank of India (SBI) for setting up of a payments bank with a 70 per cent equity holding.

''At Reliance, we continued to harness the power of our integrated energy and materials business portfolio. We maintained our earnings growth trajectory during this quarter, as the world grappled with new dimensions of economic uncertainty,'' Mukesh D Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Limited said.

''Though regional refining margins trended downwards, our high-conversion refining system was able to take advantage of higher margins on middle distillates and wider discounts on sour crude oils. Our refining business delivered another record performance and achieved industry leading GRM. Our petrochemicals business has a wide product portfolio, superior feedstock linkages and serves high-growth end-markets in India. As a result, we achieved yet another quarter of margin expansion in petrochemicals business and delivered EBIT growth of more than 20.5 per cent Y-o-Y,'' he added.