New Delhi
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries today posted the highest quarterly net profit by any Indian private sector firm with a 9.8% rise in earnings in the period ended March 31 after robust business in retail and telecom sectors offset a dip in oil refinery margins.

The oil-to-telecom conglomerate reported a 9.8% rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 10,362 crore, or Rs 17.5 per share, in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2019, as compared to Rs 9,438 crore, or Rs 15.9 a share, in the same period of the previous financial year, the company said.

This is the highest quarterly profit by any Indian private sector company. State-owned Indian Oil Corp holds the distinction of posting the highest ever quarterly profit by any Indian firm when it had reported a net profit of Rs 14,512.81 crore in January-March 2013 after it received the full-year fuel subsidy in just one quarter.

The company opened more retail stores and added 26.6 million new subscribers to its Jio mobile phone service that helped increase the profitability of the venture as its traditional oil refining business witnessed margin pressures on fluctuating international oil prices. In full year 2018-19, the company posted a record Rs 39,588 crore net profit on revenue of Rs 622,809 crore.

Reliance saw its revenue jump by 19.4% to Rs 1,54,110 crore in January-March 2019, even though it was 9.7% lower than Rs 1,70,709 crore revenue in the third quarter of the fiscal.

“During FY 2018-19, we achieved several milestones and made significant strides in building Reliance of the future. Reliance Retail crossed Rs 100,000 crore revenue milestone, Jio now serves over 300 million consumers and our petrochemicals business delivered its highest ever earnings,” Reliance Industries chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said.