NEW DELHI,OCT 18:
Reliance Industries (RIL) today reported its highest ever quarterly net profit in July-September as record earnings from petrochemical business and bumper earnings from retail business and telecom arm made up for a decline in refinery margins.The oil-to-telecom conglomerate also announced the acquisition of majority stakes in Den Networks Ltd and Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd for Rs 5,230 crore to bring under its fold 27,000 local cable operators who would help strengthen its rollout of fibre-based broadband service to households for offering ultra high definition entertainment on large screen TVs.Its consolidated net profit of Rs 9,516 crore, or Rs 16.1 per share, in the second quarter of current fiscal, was 17.4% higher than Rs 8,109 crore, or Rs 13.7 a share, in the same period of the previous financial year, the company said. Revenue jumped 54.5% to Rs 1,56,291 crore.Its retail business, which comprises 9,146 stores across 5,800-plus towns and cities, saw pre-tax business profit jump 213% to Rs 1,392 crore on the back of more than doubling of revenue to Rs 32,436 crore.Reliance Jio, the group’s telecom arm, posted a standalone net profit of Rs 681 crore, which was 11.3% more than the previous quarter as subscriber base swelled to 252.3 million.
