Reliance Jio Q1 profit up 23.8% to ₹4,335 cr

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries' telecom arm Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. has reported a 23.8% rise in its net profit at ₹4,335 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2022. Sequentially, Reliance Jio's profit rose marginally from ₹4,173 crore in the previous January-March quarter.

Revenue from operations of Jio, which is India's largest telecom service provider, increased 21.5% on a year-on-year basis to ₹21,873 crore in the April-June quarter of FY23. While the telco's revenue stood at ₹18,008 crore during the same quarter last year, it was ₹20,945 crore during the previous quarter.

The telco's EBITDA for the said quarter rose to ₹10,964 crore from ₹8,617 crore during the same quarter last fiscal year, while margin grew to 50.1% in Q1 FY23 from 47.9% during the same quarter last year. Total expenses for the June quarter of FY23 stood at ₹16,137 crore, compared with ₹13,313 crore in the corresponding quarter of FY22.

"The company continues to invest in augmentation of the wireless and wireline network capacity. Unsecured redeemable non-convertible debentures ("NCDs") of the company outstanding (before netting off unamortised finance charges and fair valuation impact) as on 30th June 2022 are ₹5,000 crore," Jio says in a statement.

Reliance Jio recorded a net addition of 31,11,417 subscribers during May 2022, more than thrice its biggest competitor Bharti Airtel, shows the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data released this week. Reliance Jio continues to command the largest wireless subscriber base at 40,87,87,442 users, followed by Bharti Airtel at 36,21,75,161 subscribers, the data till May 2022 shows.

Besides, Reliance Jio, being the market leader, has paid ₹14,000 crore as earnest money for the upcoming sale of 5G spectrum. In comparison, Bharti Airtel made the second highest earnest money deposit (EMD) at ₹5,500 crore, less than 40% of what Jio has furnished.

Scheduled for July end, the 5G spectrum auction will see 72,097.85 MHz of spectrum in the low-frequency bands of 600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, mid-frequency band of 3300 MHz, and a high-frequency band of 26 GHz going under the hammer.

Reliance Jio’s parent company Reliance Industries Ltd’s current market cap stands at ₹16.9 lakh crore, which makes RIL India's most valued company. The RIL stock closed 0.62% up today at ₹2,509.9 on the BSE, approximately in line with the benchmark Sensex which closed 0.70% up. The stock traded higher than 5-day and 20-day moving averages but lower than 50-day, 100-day and 200-day moving averages.

RIL is yet to release its financial results.

Reliance Industries had ended the financial year 2021-22 on a strong note, with stellar growth in top and bottom line, driven by digital services and retail segments. RIL had reported 20.2% year-on-year (YoY) growth in net profit at ₹18,021 crore for the Jan-March quarter but sequentially, the profit dropped. The Mumbai-headquartered company's revenue had surged 35.1% to ₹232,539 crore in Q4 FY22.