Reliance Industries Ltd Earnings - Q4 2025 Analysis & Highlights
Reliance Industries Ltd. (EQRELIANCE.IN) discussed strong financial performance in Q3 2026, with notable growth in Digital Services and O2C businesses, alongside strategic advancements in New Energy and Retail. The company highlighted its diversified business model, robust cash generation, and an upgraded credit rating, while also addressing competitive dynamics and macroeconomic factors.
Key Financial Results
Revenues were up 10% overall.
EBITDA increased by approximately 6%.
Overall PAT stood at INR 22,290 crores, marking a 1.6% increase.
JPL consolidated operating revenues reached INR 37,262 crores, a 12.7% year-on-year increase.
JPL EBITDA was INR 19,303 crores, with a consol EBITDA margin of 51.8%.
JPL Profit after tax grew to INR 7,629 crores for the quarter.
Retail business achieved its highest-ever revenue at INR 97,600 crores, up 8.1%.
Retail EBITDA came in at INR 6,915 crores, with a margin of 8%.
RCPL revenue reached INR 5,000 crores for the quarter, with YTD numbers at INR 15,000 crores.
JioHotstar operating revenue for the quarter was INR 6,896 crores, with an EBITDA of INR 1,303 crores.
O2C EBITDA was INR 16,507 crores, a 15% growth compared to the previous year's INR 14,400 crores.
Business Segment Results
Digital Services and Retail primarily led revenue growth.
EBITDA was fundamentally driven by strong O2C performance, which was 15% higher.
Digital Services EBITDA was up 16%.
O2C EBITDA was up 15% due to a higher transportation market, offset by muted downstream petrochemical performance.
Upstream EBITDA was lower due to lower volumes and prices.
Digital Services showed strong growth in homes and customer additions.
Retail is scaling up its quick commerce side.
Jio Platforms ended the quarter with 515 million-plus subscribers, adding 8.9 million net adds.
Jio's 5G user base grew to 253 million-plus subscribers.
Jio added over a million homes every month, reaching 25 million-plus fixed broadband connections and 11.5 million JioAirFiber homes.
Jio Platforms revenues crossed INR 37,000 crore with an EBITDA margin of 52%.
Jio's ARPU was INR 213.7, driven by organic means without tariff increases.
Jio's total data consumption crossed 60 billion GBs.
Per capita data consumption grew to 40.7 GB/month.
RCPL's Daily Essentials grew 1.5 times year-on-year, with the Independence brand crossing INR 1,500 crores.
RCPL's Beverages maintained double-digit shares in key markets.
RCPL's Energy portfolio reached INR 1,000 crores for the year.
JioHotstar reported 450 million average monthly active users, a 13% growth over the previous quarter.
JioHotstar's entertainment watch time grew 15% quarter-on-quarter.
JioHotstar's linear TV shares grew by 100-basis-points to 34.6%.
E&P EBITDA was INR 4,850 crores, with margins impacted by lower revenue due to price and production decline.
KGD6 and CBM are producing about 26.5 MMSCMD.
Oil and condensate production remained steady at around 17,300 barrels.
CBM well productivity improved by 3.5 to 4 times in the recent campaign.
O2C crude throughput was 20.6 MMT.
Jio-bp diesel sales were up 25%, and gasoline MS sales were up 21%.
Jio-bp's market share grew to 3.82% for gasoline and 5.9% for diesel.
Jio-bp's ATF market share is about 6.1%.
Capital Allocation
CapEx was INR 33,000 crores, almost INR 34,000 crores, which was less than cash profits.
O2C-related expansion accounted for INR 9,000 crores of CapEx.
New Energy accounted for about INR 8,000 crores-odd of CapEx.
JIO accounted for about INR 7,500 crores of CapEx.
Retail accounted for about INR 4,000 crores of CapEx.
Industry Trends and Dynamics
Transportation fuel deltas saw 60% to 100% growth year-on-year.
Global ethylene capacity increased by 50% in the last 10 years, from 163 million tonnes to 230-240 million tonnes.
Ethylene demand growth has been typically between 3% to 4%.
Ethylene operating rates have decreased from 90-91% to 80% in the last four years.
Polyethylene and polypropylene domestic demand grew by 4% and 8%, respectively.
PVC demand saw a 12% reduction due to a prolonged monsoon.
Polyester staple fiber had a demand growth of 5%.
Global oil demand is likely to grow by 0.9 million barrels a day, led by Chinese stock build and healthy growth in the Indian market.
New refinery capacity will be limited, with likely closures and unplanned outages supporting refinery GRMs.
Domestic demand for fuels and downstream chemicals is likely to remain healthy.
Competitive Landscape
Jio is on track to be the second largest QC player.
Jio has a 65% share of 5G subscribers in India.
Jio is rated as the best network on almost all parameters by Ookla.
Jio has gained over 800-basis-point market share in home broadband in the last 12 months.
70% of incremental fixed broadband subscriber addition is happening through the Jio network.
Jio-bp is selling 1.8 times more gasoline and 2.7 times more diesel per outlet compared to competitors.
JioHotstar's TV network content continues to deliver big numbers, with linear TV shares growing to 34.6%, equal to the next three networks combined.
Macroeconomic Environment
Consol profit was muted due to higher finance and depreciation, primarily driven by Jio depreciation with 5G asset capitalization.
Overall LNG prices moved from $11 to $9.5, impacting KGD6 and CBM realizations.
Brent price fell by almost 15% due to oversupply from OPEC unwinding 2 million barrels of cuts and increased non-OPEC production.
Ethane prices were up 21% year-on-year due to stronger US Henry Hub gas prices.
Naphtha prices declined about 14% due to weak crude prices.
Polyethylene, polypropylene, and PVC absolute prices were down.
PE-naphtha delta was up 6%, while PP and PVC deltas were down 12% and 5%, respectively.
Polyester margins were weak due to MEG weakness, partially offset by paraxylene strength.
Uncertainty in the macro environment continues to be volatile.
Growth Opportunities and Strategies
Jio is focused on developing proprietary technologies suitable for Indian customers and price points, aiming for global scale and efficiencies.
Jio's 4G and 5G core run on in-house developed stack.
Jio's fixed wireless solutions have made it the world's largest fixed wireless operator.
Jio is expanding its home OS to over 25 million homes.
Jio is adding more services and offerings to customers, including partnerships like JioHotstar and Google Gemini Pro.
Jio plans to expand Google Gemini Pro access to other users over time.
Jio is using multiple technologies (fiber, fixed wireless 5G, and fixed wireless UBR) to add new homes.
Jio is building moats to grow enterprise market share and monetization through managed services and sovereign-grade AI cloud offerings.
Reliance Retail is scaling up its hyper-local commerce business, with 1.6 million daily orders and 53% quarter-on-quarter growth.
Reliance Retail entered an exclusive partnership with Fabletics.
RCPL is expanding its beverages capacity and developing Food Parks across states.
RCPL completed a majority acquisition in Udhaiyams to advance its pan-India Staples business.
RCPL acquired global brands like Brylcreem, Tony & Guy, Badedas, and Matey.
RCPL entered the pet categories with high-quality, science-backed products.
RCPL relaunched SIL and entered the Noodles segment.
O2C is maximizing gasoline production due to better economics.
O2C is focused on the domestic market and increasing placement through Jio-bp.
O2C is reducing fuel costs through record gasifier output and optimized fuel mix.
O2C is managing freight costs by using time charter vessels, aggregating cargos, and flexible tanker service changes.
New Energy is setting up a fully end-to-end integrated solar manufacturing capacity of 10-gigawatt per peak annual capacity, scaling up to 20-gigawatt peak.
New Energy is establishing a fully integrated battery manufacturing from cell pack to ESS containerized storage, with an initial phase of 40 gigawatt-hour, expanding to 100 gigawatt-hour.
New Energy is setting up electrolyzer manufacturing and compressed biogas plants.
New Energy will use its capacity for captive power generation at Kutch and provide solutions for domestic and export markets.
Financial Guidance and Outlook
Jio IPO is imminent, awaiting government notification.
New Energy generation capacity will start coming up within the next 12 to 15 months.
New Energy polysilicon production will be significantly impacted by power cost.
New Energy manufacturing ecosystem investment of INR 75,000 crores is mostly spent or committed.
O2C business expects refinery GRMs to be supported by limited new refinery capacity and unplanned outages.
O2C business anticipates domestic demand for fuels and downstream chemicals to remain healthy.
O2C business believes capacity rationalization in Europe and Northeast Asia will restore demand-supply balance in the industry within about a year.
O2C business expects operating rates to remain at 80% levels this year.
Jio aims for organic ARPU improvement of 5% to 6% a year.
Retail expects to continue delivering double-digit revenues on an aggregate basis.
Credit Rating
S&P changed the company's ratings from BBB+ to A-, two notches above.
The upgrade was based on a higher portion of earnings coming from less cyclical consumer businesses.
S&P believes earnings growth will continue to outpace CapEx.
The company will benefit from access to capital pools that lend only to A-rated companies, improving liquidity and reducing credit spreads.
The company is the first Indian manufacturing company with an international rating of A-.
