Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported almost a flat net profit of Rs 18,645 crore for the third quarter, as a decline in gas production and weakness in its retail business offset gains in other segments.
The country’s largest conglomerate saw muted earnings growth in the retail business on GST rate rationalisation, demerger of consumer product business and distribution of festive buying split between two quarters.
This offset healthy margins driving energy and digital businesses.
Its consolidated net profit of Rs 18,645 crore, or Rs 13.78 per share, in October-December - the third quarter of the current 2025-26 fiscal year - compared to Rs 18,540 crore, or Rs 13.70 per share a year back, according to a company statement.
Jio Platforms, the unit that holds the digital and telecom business of the conglomerate, saw a nearly 13 per cent rise in revenue on robust subscriber addition, an increase in earnings per user and scale-up of digital services.
Oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business, which comprises the group’s oil refineries and petrochemical complexes, saw an 8.4 per cent rise in revenue on strong fuel cracks (margins), production increase and the group expanding its fuel retailing network.
Revenue from operations rose to Rs 2.69 lakh crore from Rs 2.43 lakh crore in October-December 2024. Pre-tax profit or EBITDA grew 6.1 per cent to Rs 48,003 crore.
Giving segment-wise growth, Reliance said retail business EBITDA was up 1.3 per cent and profit at 2.7 per cent (Rs 3,551 crore) even as the company opened 431 new stores, and it clocked 1.6 million daily order run-rate on quick commerce.
Jio Platforms Ltd posted an 11.2 per cent rise in profits to Rs 7,629 crore in Q3. All four key parameters - data minute usage, data consumed, average per-user earnings and number of subscribers - grew.
The customer base rose to 515.3 million from 506.4 million in July-September. Average revenue per user rose to Rs 213.7 from Rs 211.4 in the preceding quarter.
ARPU increase was partly offset by promotional offers for unlimited 5G and Fixed Broadband services, the company said, adding that per capita data consumption was 40.7 GB per cent month with total data traffic growth of 34 per cent year-on-year during Q3 FY26.
The natural decline in its KG fields saw the oil and gas business EBIDTA drop nearly 13 per cent to Rs 4,857 crore. Output fell almost 10 per cent in the third quarter, while the price realised was
also lower.
The average KG-D6 production is around 26.1 million standard cubic meters per day of gas and about 18,400 barrels of oil a day.
JioStar reported strong revenues of Rs 8,010 crore with EBITDA (including other income) of Rs 1,303 crore. JioHotstar averaged 450 million monthly active users (MAUs); up 13 per cent quarter-on-quarter and almost on par with the IPL quarter (Q1 FY26).