Jio profit quadruples, Reliance Retail crosses Rs 100K crore revenue

Jio profit quadruples, Reliance Retail crosses Rs 100K crore revenue

The Jio juggernaut has shown the fastest growth rate towards 300 million subscribers

Mukesh Ambani

BENGALURU: Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (Jio) is a juggernaut that has shown the fastest growth rate towards the milestone of 300 million (30 crore) subscribers. Jio ended fiscal 2019 (financial year ended 31 March 2019, FY 2019, year under review) with 306.7 million plus subscribers. Financially also, Jio is a juggernaut that showed standalone profit after tax for FY 2018 at Rs 723 crore – in FY 2019, Jio’s standalone PAT more than quadrupled (grew 310 percent) to Rs 2,964 crore.

The company’s standalone net operating revenue in the year under review increased 92.7 percent to Rs 38,838 crore from Rs 20,154 crore in the previous fiscal. Standalone Total Comprehensive income for FY 2019 also more than quadrupled (grew 308 percent) to Rs 2,968 crore from Rs 728 crore. Standalone simple EBITDA for FY 2019 more than doubled (grew 124 percent) to Rs 15,096 crore (38.87 percent margin) from Rs 6,371 crore (33.4 percent margin). Note – all financial numbers in this report are standalone unless stated otherwise.

Commenting on Jio’s results, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said: “We at Jio are truly overwhelmed and proud to now serve over 300 million subscribers. Growth in data and voice traffic at this scale has been unparalleled. Jio’s network is one of the largest mobile data networks in the world carrying over 3 Exabytes of data every month at unmatched download speeds. Jio 4G LTE network would soon cover every district, taluk, gram panchayat and village of India with targeted population coverage of 99 percent. Our constant endeavour is to offer gold standard digital experience to all our users across the country.

After successful execution of mobility business, Jio is now focused on catapulting India’s underserved home & enterprise connectivity market to global standards with its next generation FTTX services. Jio mobility services along with Gigafiber fixed-broadband services and associated technology platforms have been designed to transform India with the power of digital revolution and reinvent Reliance as a technology platform company.”

Jio’s total expenditure for the year under review increased 80 percent to Rs 34, 288 crore from Rs 19,049 crore. Network operating expenses more than doubled (increased 130 percent) in FY 2019 to Rs 11,338 crore from Rs 4,921 crore. Net access charges declined 1.9 percent to Rs 4,207 crore from Rs 4,287 crore. License Fees/Spectrum Fees in FY 2019 also more than doubled (increased 135 percent) to Rs 4,159 crore from Rs 1,767 crore. Employee Benefits Expense increased 72.2 percent in FY 2019 to Rs 1,658 crore from Rs 963 crore. Finance costs increased 102 percent in the period under review to Rs 4,148 crore from Rs 2,049 crore. Selling and distribution expense in FY 2019 increased 44.3 percent to Rs 1,150 crore from Rs 688 crore. Other Expense in FY 2019 increased 78.8 percent to Rs 1,230 crore from Rs 688 crore in FY 2018.

Reliance Organised Retail

RIL’s organised retail business reported 88.7 percent growth in revenue at Rs 130,566 crore in FY 2019 as compared to Rs 69,198 crore in the previous year, and hence crossed the Rs 100,000 crore mark. The segment had EBITD of 5,546 crore for FY 2019 which was more than double (168.9 percent higher) as compared to Rs 2,046 crore in the previous year. PBIT for FY 2019 grew 145 percent to Rs 6,201 crore from Rs 2,529 crore in FY 2018. RIL says that the total area under operation was 2.2 million square feet in FY 2019 as compared to 17.7 million square feet at the end of FY 2018.

Reliance Industries Ltd

RIL achieved a consolidated revenue of Rs 622,809 crore ($ 90.1 billion), an increase of 44.6 percent as compared to Rs 430,731 crore in the previous year. Net profit for the year increased 13.1 percent to Rs 39,588 crore from Rs 34,988 crore in the previous year.

Commenting on RIL results Ambani, said: “During FY 2018-19, we achieved several milestones and made significant strides in building Reliance of the future. Reliance Retail crossed Rs 100,000 crore revenue milestone, Jio now serves over 300 million consumers and our petrochemicals business delivered its highest ever earnings. I am proud of the entire Reliance team; their hard work and dedication has laid the foundation for these achievements and many more to come. The company has delivered record consolidated net profit of Rs 39,588 crore for the year in a period of heightened volatility in the energy markets. I am delighted to highlight that our company has more than doubled its PBDIT in last five years to Rs 92,656 crore – establishing a global benchmark for value creation.