
RIL investors need clarity on Jio IPO timeline, easing pressure in O2C
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL) consolidated Ebitda inched up just 0.7% year-on-year to ₹44,141 crore in the March quarter (Q4FY26). Ordinarily, that wouldn’t cheer investors—but given the impact of the West Asia war on the O2C (oil-to-chemicals) segment, it is a reasonably good outcome.The O2C business, which contributed one-third of RIL’s total Ebitda in the quarter, faced crude availability constraints and a surge in costs such as freight and insurance.
As a result, operating profit weakened.Production volume meant for sale declined 4% year-on-year to 17.2 million tonnes, even as Ebitda per tonne remained almost unchanged at ₹8,442.Per-tonne profitability stayed resilient despite under-recoveries in petroleum products. Since state-owned oil marketing companies did not hike fuel prices, RIL too refrained from doing so.
Petrochemical margins were also hit, with polyethylene and polypropylene spreads dropping.Consequently, O2C Ebitda fell 4% year-on-year to ₹14,520 crore, tracking the lower production.Retail was the standout performer in Q4. Revenue rose 14% to ₹87,344 crore, after removing FMCG revenue of Reliance Consumer Products (demerged with effect from December) from the base quarter.This growth far outpaced the 4% increase in store count and the 1% expansion in total store area.
For a pure offline retailer, that would imply strong same-store sales growth (SSSG). However, that’s not entirely the case here.Management stated in the earnings call that SSSG was in healthy single-digit, with the remaining contribution coming from online sales growth—quick commerce and e-commerce.The rapid expansion in online sales is now visible in profitability.
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