India’s Reliance Industries shares up 1.88% after strong Q3 net profit

Pearl Bantillo

22-Jan-2018

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL’s) shares were trading 1.83% higher on Monday after reporting a 25.1% year-on-year increase in its third-quarter net profit to Indian rupees (Rs) 94.2bn ($1.5bn), backed by the Indian conglomerate’s investment in petrochemicals.

At 10:43 Mumbai time (05:13 GMT), RIL was trading at Rs946.85, up by Rs17.50 from the previous close, according to data available on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

RIL’s revenue for the quarter ending December 2017 stood at Rs1.1trn, up 30.5% from the previous corresponding period, the company reported late on 19 January.

During the quarter, the company commissioned its 1.5m tonne/year refinery off-gas cracker (ROGC) complex in Jamnagar, along with downstream plants and utilities.

Third-quarter operating profit from petrochemicals surged 73% year on year to Rs57.5bn, on revenues of Rs337.3bn, up 47.6% from the previous corresponding period, RIL said.

RIL’s overall petrochemical production in India has increased to 8.0m tonnes/year from 6.2m tonnes/year in the third quarter of 2017.

Reliance chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said that the December quarter “marks the culmination of our petrochemical expansion projects”.

“Our refining business has delivered 12 consecutive quarter of double-digit refining margins … Benefits of the large investments in petrochemical business are beginning to show with the segment reporting its highest ever earnings,” Ambani said.

Ethylene from the ROGC is used in downstream plants to produce monoethylene glycol (MEG) and polyethylene (PE).

Similarly, propylene from the ROGC enhances output of RIL’s existing polypropylene (PP) plants at the Jamnagar complex to produce high-value copolymers.

The commissioning of the complex’s MEG plant marks completion of all-round expansion of the polyester value chain, following successful commissioning of paraxylene (PX), purified terephthalic acid (PTA), polyester filament and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plants over last three years, the company had said in early January 2018.

($1 = Rs63.8)

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