India's Reliance Industries posts Q3 revenue just shy of estimates on refinery shutdowns
BENGALURU (Reuters) - Reliance Industries' third-quarter revenue came in slightly below estimates on Friday due to lower price realisation on its refined products and the planned shutdown of some units at its refinery complex in the western state of Gujarat.
The Jamnagar complex, which houses two plants with a combined capacity of about 1.4 million barrels per day, is at the core of Reliance's oil-to-chemicals (O2C) operations, making it a key profit driver, despite the company's aggressive expansion into retail, telecom and green energy.
The Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate said the units were shut for planned maintenance and inspection at the world's biggest refining complex, limiting the output.
Consolidated revenue from operations rose 3.6% to 2.28 trillion rupees ($27.45 billion), while analysts were expecting revenue of 2.31 trillion rupees, according to LSEG data.
Revenue from the company's O2C unit fell 2.4%.
The conglomerate saw its refinery margins touch record levels in 2022 as it used cheaper Russian crude. That benefit has since waned as discounts have narrowed.
The company's profit rose to 172.65 billion rupees in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from 157.92 billion rupees a year earlier, edging past analysts' estimates of 172.13 billion rupees.
Reliance Jio Infocomm, India's biggest telecom carrier by subscribers, reported a 12.3% rise in quarterly profit on subscriber additions, while the retail unit's net profit gained 31.9% on a rise in footfalls.
Meanwhile, the company's total expenses also surged 16.2%, driven primarily by higher depreciation, finance costs as well as higher tax expenses.
($1 = 83.0410 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Sethuraman NR in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Anil D'Silva)
