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Mumbai, Jan. 17

Reliance Industries’ third quarter net profit more than doubled, boosted substantially by one-time gains from sale of shares in subsidiary Reliance Petroleum.

RIL’s net profit was up 162 per cent, at Rs 8,079 crore against Rs 3,081 crore in the corresponding year-ago period. The exceptional income from the sale of 4.6 per cent equity stake in RPL during the quarter amounted to Rs 4,733 crore.

Excluding this extraordinary income, RIL’s net profit rose by 26 per cent, to Rs 3,882 crore. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were up 15 per cent, at Rs 6,074 crore (Rs 5,300 crore).

Turnover at Rs 35,880 crore (Rs 29,753 crore), rose 21 per cent.

The positive impact of higher gross refining margins in the refining and marketing business was somewhat dampened by the performance of the petrochemical sector, which was under pressure because of higher feedstock prices.

Gross refining margin for the third quarter was $15.4 per barrel, against $11.7 per barrel a year-ago. Although worldwide refinery outages have led to spikes in margins, the Jamnagar refinery configuration helped to keep margins firm, the company said in a statement.

Refining and marketing revenues, which account for 66 per cent of total revenues, rose 25 per cent, to Rs 26,154 crore. The segment earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) grew 36 per cent, to Rs 2,614 crore; and the EBIT margin was higher at 10 per cent against 9.2 per cent.

Although petrochemical margins improved slightly, revenues slumped by 3 per cent, to Rs 12,706 crore, while EBIT was flat at Rs 1,788 crore. Strong domestic demand somewhat mitigated the negative impact of higher feedstock prices, said the company.

The Jamnagar refinery (Reliance Petroleum Ltd), which is scheduled to come on stream in December 2008, might be ready for commissioning a few months ahead of time, said a spokesperson.

RIL will invest $1 billion every quarter over the next two or three quarters in its exploration and production business, said a spokesperson.

Development of the two gas discoveries in the KGD6 block is on schedule for production in the second half of 2008-2009. The company’s stock closed at Rs 2,996.25 on the BSE, declining 3.3 per cent, its dip sharper than that of the Sensex which was down 0.84 per cent on Thursday.

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