India’s Reliance Industries reports best ever quarterly sales in Q3

Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries announced on Friday that it had achieved its highest ever quarterly revenue, with net profit increasing by 41% in the third quarter. The impressive figures were driven by strong performances from its core oil-to-chemicals arm and digital services division. The numbers came days after the successful debut of Jio Platforms, the conglomerate's digital services arm, which raised over $3 billion in the country's biggest initial public offering.

Led by billionaire tycoon Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries is India's most valuable company by market capitalisation. The group reported revenue of 3.62 trillion rupees (US$38 billion), a 27.8% increase year-on-year and its highest quarterly sales figure. Reliance has been aggressively expanding into telecom and green energy businesses over the last decade, but its traditional oil business remains crucial for profits.

The conglomerate operates the world's largest refinery complex in Gujarat, India. Despite challenges in the oil sector due to the Middle East conflict, Reliance has successfully diversified its crude imports. Reliance's strong performance was attributed to Ambani's ability to optimise feedstock sourcing, product placement, and operations across the value chain, resulting in improved margin capture.

The impressive Jio's listing has also contributed to the growth. Launched a decade ago, Jio's wireless service disrupted the market with deep discounts, quickly gaining customers from rival telecom firms Bharti Airtel and Vodafone. Currently with over 530 million subscribers, Jio generates most of its revenue from telecoms but has diversified into digital services and artificial intelligence in recent years.

Analysts view Jio as essential to Reliance's strategy to evolve beyond its traditional business and a key to its future tech ambitions. Ambani emphasized that Reliance has set multiple global benchmarks, highlighting the confidence investors have in Jio's solid foundation and strong growth potential.