Gross revenue rose by 0.8% year-over-year to Rs 258,027 crore in the second quarter. Oil to Chemicals (O2C) revenue improved with higher volumes and increased domestic placement of products.

Digital services revenue increased with the impact of revised telecom tariffs for mobility services and scale-up of homes and digital services businesses. Lower gas price realizations led to 6% lower revenue in the Oil and Gas segment.

EBITDA decreased by 2% to Rs 43,934 crore in Q2 FY25 from Rs 44,809 crore in Q2 FY24. EBITDA margin in Q2 FY25 was 17% in Q2 FY25 as against 17.5% in Q2 FY24.

Finance costs increased by 5% YoY to Rs 6,017 crore, primarily due to higher debt.

Capital expenditure for the quarter ended 30 September 2024, was Rs 34,022 crore.

Mukesh D. Ambani, chairman and managing director, Reliance Industries, said: “I am happy to note that during this quarter Reliance once again demonstrated the resilience of its diversified business portfolio.

Our performance reflects robust growth in Digital Services and Upstream business. This helped partially offset weak contribution from O2C business which was impacted by unfavorable global demand-supply dynamics.

Growth in Digital Services was led by increased ARPU and improving customer engagement metrics reflecting the strong value proposition of our services. The home broadband segment is witnessing accelerated momentum on the back of our unique industry-leading JioAirFiber offering. Jio’s broad spectrum of offerings enables it to digitally empower every village, town and city in India as well as the country’s small and medium scale enterprises.

The retail segment continues to increase its consumer touchpoints and product offerings across physical and digital channels. The unique omni-channel retail model enables the business to service a wide range of requirements of a vast, heterogenous customer base.

The retail business continues to partner with renowned domestic as well as global players, expanding its basket of quality product offerings. The focus on strengthening our Retail operations will help us rapidly scale-up this business in the coming quarters and years and sustain our industry-leading growth momentum.

The first of our New Energy Giga-factories is on-track to commence production of solar PV modules by the end of this year. With a comprehensive range of renewable solutions including solar, energy storage systems, green hydrogen, bio-energy and wind, the New Energy business is poised to become a significant contributor to global clean energy transition.”

JIO PLATFORMS:

Jio Platforms (JPL) has reported a net profit of Rs 6,536 crore (up 23.4% YoY) and revenues of Rs 37,119 crore (up 17.7% YoY). EBITDA improved by 17.8% to Rs 15,931 crore in Q2 FY25 over Q2 FY24.

JPL’s strong revenue growth was led by scaling up of digital services and partial impact of tariff hike. During the quarter, average revenue per user (ARPU) rose by 7.4% YoY to Rs 195.1 while the subscriber base increased by 4.2% YoY to 478.8 million.

The company continued to record strong gross subscribers' additions. Data traffic was up 24% YoY at 45 billion GB – higher mix of 5G and home subscribers

RELIANCE RETAIL (RRVL):

Reliance Retail Ventures’ revenue and net profit for Q2 FY25 was Rs 2,935 crore (up 5.2% YoY) and Rs 76,302 crore (down 1.1% YoY), respectively.

RRVL’s revenue growth impacted by weak F&L demand, continued focus on streamlining of operations and calibrated approach in B2B to enhance margins.

EBITDA and EBITDA margin for July – September 2024 quarter were Rs 2,935 crore (up 5.2% YoY) and 8.5% (up 40 bps YoY), respectively.

The company continued to scale up its digital commerce capabilities and reach. Consistent momentum in B2C operating metrics and broad-based expansion further supported growth and market leadership.

RRVL’s store count increased to 18,946 stores in Q2 FY25, up 1.6% YoY. Footfalls for the period under review were 297 million (up 14.2% YoY).

OIL TO CHEMICALS (O2C):

RIL’s O2C business recorded 5.1% growth in revenues to Rs 155,580 crore in Q2 FY25 as compared with the same period last year. EBITDA, however, dropped by 23.7% YoY to Rs 12,413 crore during the period under review.

The EBITDA impacted by unfavorable global demand-supply balance, with deep 50% correction recorded in fuel cracks, 9-24% fall registered in downstream chemical deltas, soft domestic demand – Oil (up 2.2%), Polymer (down 5%), Polyester (down 7%).

RIL’s operational flexibility coupled with optimization of yields and costs helped reduce the impact on EBITDA. 47% YoY decline in ethane price further strengthened cracking economics. Improved economics led to 28% higher product placement through fuel retailing.

“Global demand pick-up and capacity rationalisation likely to support margin recovery,” the company stated.

Oil and Gas (Exploration & Production):

The company’s Oil & Gas segment reported revenue and EBITDA of Rs 6,222 crore (down 6% YoY) and Rs 5,290 crore (up 11% YoY), respectively.

The robust growth in EBITDA was supported by sustained production from KG D6 block and improved CBM output. Growth in volumes for KG D6 was led by 8.2% higher condensate/oil production. However, KGD6 gas price realization fell by 8.7% YoY to $9.55 per MMBTU.

During Q2, KG D6 recorded average gas production of 28.5 MMSCMD and average oil/condensate production of 20,800 barrel per day.

MEDIA BUSINESS:

RIL’s Media Business recorded PAT and revenue from operations of Rs (188) crore and Rs 1,825 crore in Q2 FY25.

RIL stated that the Media business operating revenue declined marginally by 2.1%, primarily due to a sharp drop in revenues of movie segment, a project-based business.

News portfolio revenue grew 6% driven by growth in Digital segment advertising revenue, across all brands. TV advertising environment was soft during the quarter as advertising volumes across industry for the news genre declined by over 20% Y-o-Y. EBITDA for the News business continued to improve with a sharp turnaround in the first half of the fiscal.

Entertainment business operating revenue was down 5%, primarily due to the drop in movie segment revenue.

This impact was largely offset by growth in subscription revenue on account of new pricing as well as the increased monetisation of Sports portfolio. Growth in ad revenue was primarily driven by digital, across both sports and non-sports segments. JioCinema’s recently launched SVOD plans witnessed strong traction and helped it become the fastest-growing subscription-based OTT platform in the country.

'The Group continued to make investments in Sports and Digital, which had an impact on operating profits,” the company said in a statement.

RIL is India's largest private sector company. Its activities span hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, renewables (solar and hydrogen), retail and digital services.

The scrip shed 0.95% to currently trade at Rs 2719.25 on the BSE.