Even as it lost its position of the most valued Indian company more than two years back, Reliance Industries (RIL) continues to dwarf top traded Indian companies in terms of absolute profitability.
RIL’s Q4 earnings is more than the annual revenue of 80% of the BSE 500 universe for the year ending December 2014. Each of these 402 companies, which includes prominent bluechips including L&T, Sesa Sterlite, Bharti Airtel, HUL and Maruti Suzuki saw trailing 12-month net profit in the range of R5,500 crore to R3,225 crore at the end of December 2014.
At R6,381 crore, RIL reported its highest consolidated quarterly profit in nearly seven years on the back of a strong core refining business.
Quarterly other income, which is driven mainly by treasury operations, and in the last three years has averaged at R2,140 crore , cements the petroleum giant’s strong financial standing. This is because as many as 161 companies or 30% of the BSE 500 universe reported annual revenue which is smaller than RIL’s other income. For example, for the year ending December 2014, Abbot India, Asahi Glass, Emami and Essar Ports each reported net sales of the order of R2,135 crore to R1,900 crore whereas RIL’s other income in January-March 2015 stands at R2,172 crore.
While RIL briefly lost its status as the company with the highest quarterly profit to TCS in the previous quarter (Q2FY15), in the latest earnings season it has now regained that spot.