Reliance Industries Ltd Earnings - Q3 2025 Analysis & Highlights
Key Takeaways
Reliance Industries Ltd's Q2 2026 earnings call, held on October 17, 2025, highlighted strong performance across all businesses, with a focus on Jio's growth, Retail's expansion, and advancements in the Energy sector. Key themes included revenue and EBITDA growth, strategic initiatives in digital services and new energy, and the impact of market dynamics on the oil and gas business.
Key Financial Results
10% increase in revenues, driven by Retail, despite lower oil prices.
EBITDA of over INR 50,000 crores, up by 15%.
PAT at INR 22,100 crores, a 14% increase (pre-minority numbers).
Finance costs increased by about 14%, and depreciation by about 12%, due to 5G capitalization.
Standalone RIL PAT at about INR 9,200 crores, JPL at about INR 7,400 crores, and RRVL at about INR 3,400 crores.
Business Segment Results
Jio: 18% growth in EBITDA, driven by strong customer growth in both mobility and homes. Total customer base reached 506.4 million with a net addition of 8.3 million in the quarter. ARPU at INR 211.4.
Retail: EBITDA growth of approximately 17%, with revenues higher by about 18%. Categories including fashion and lifestyle, grocery, and electronics saw year-on-year growth between 17% and 23%. FMCG doubled to INR 5,300 crores.
Energy: 21% higher, primarily from increased cracks across gasoline, gas oil, and ATF. Domestic placements high, with throughput up 34% for gasoline and gas oil.
Upstream: More stable at about INR 5,000 crores of EBITDA, slightly lower due to production decline.
Media: Impressive numbers with 400 million MAUs and a sharp jump in EBITDA.
O2C: EBITDA up 20.9% due to higher fuel cracks and domestic fuel placement.
Capital Allocation
CapEx spent at nearly INR 40,000 crores, in line with cash profit.
Net debt broadly flat, indicating a strengthening balance sheet.
Investments in AI DC infrastructure in Jamnagar, including a gigawatt-scale data center.
Industry Trends and Dynamics
Uptick in data consumption and traffic in non-urban areas (Tier 3 to Tier 4 rural areas).
Pan-India 5G site traffic has grown 2x in the last year, with rural sites showing higher growth.
Increasing demand for data centers.
Oil demand growth is at 0.7 million barrels per day, with most demand growth in non-OECD Asia.
Diesel and jet fuel are the main areas of growth, with 0.2 million barrels per day each.
Gasoline is relatively flat due to aggressive EV adoption in China.
Competitive Landscape
Jio is the only 5G service provider in many areas, giving them a healthy lead.
JioAirFiber has 9.5 million subscribers, making it the world's largest wireless fixed broadband service provider, bigger than Verizon and T-Mobile.
Jio's 5G customers are enjoying 1.5 times faster data speed than the nearest competitor.
Reliance Intelligence is competing with the Metas and the Googles for the AI products that are coming into the market.
Macroeconomic Environment
Oil prices were lower.
China demand has come off by almost 16% in the last quarter, whereas US LNG exports have gone up by almost 20%.
The only thing that's held up the prices is, essentially, the political turmoil that we see still in the Russia-Ukraine scenario.
Global cracker operating rate, 79.5%, which is not a healthy number from any standards.
Domestic demand is expected to pick up as we are entering the festival season now.
Growth Opportunities and Strategies
Jio is focused on operating as a next-gen technology company at scale, developing and implementing indigenous technology.
Jio aims to convert approximately 215 million 2G users and upgrade them.
Reliance Retail is quickly scaling up its quick commerce offering, now available in 5,000 pin codes across 1,000 plus cities.
Reliance Retail is focusing on brand building, bottling capacity, and setting up food parks.
Reliance New Energy is on track in terms of panel production and development of cuts, so that RE-RTC can be generated from sometime next year.
Reliance is expanding its presence in the East Coast of India along with its partner.
Reliance is maximizing crude throughput and optimizing yields to tap favorable fuel cracks.
Reliance will continue to work on higher utilization, continue focusing on the domestic market, which is our forte even when global margins are under pressure because of the capacities.
Financial Guidance and Outlook
Expect overall gas prices to remain range-bound, with the ceiling price at $9.72.
Domestic demand is not a concern at all in India in terms of the availability of gas.
Downstream chemical margins will remain constrained and the capacities are too much to handle for the world right now.
Target to complete the PVC project by next calendar year-end.
Looking to start adding to the revenue and EBITDA of Reliance with starting our first production of RE-RTC next year.
