BENGALURU: Reliance Industries Ltd posted a 15 per cent drop in September-quarter profit on Friday as the coronavirus crisis hammered its oil business, although the Indian conglomerate reaped double-digit revenue growth at its Jio telecom service.
Reliance, led by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, has in recent years built massive retail and telecom businesses to tap into India’s consumer boom and reduce its dependence on the energy sector.
Reliance, which operates the world’s biggest refining complex, said consolidated profit slipped to 95.67 billion rupees ($1.29 billion) in the three months to September 30, although it came in comfortably above analysts’ average estimate of 85.48 billion rupees, Refinitiv data showed.
Still, its energy business was hurt by a collapse in global oil demand as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts travel and business. Sales of refined products such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel have been hit, although demand within India has been picking up.
“Domestic demand has sharply recovered across our (oil-to-chemicals) business and is now near pre-Covid level for most products’’, Reliance Chairman Ambani said. — Reuters
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