The first noticeable increase in phone services tariffs in about five years helped Reliance achieve double-digit quarterly earnings growth, which was further undergirded by profitable expansion of the retail footprint that now touches 7,000 towns.
Earnings growth was 5% higher than consensus quarterly EPS estimates, and the average earnings beat in the past 19 quarters is 11.3%, according to Bloomberg.
The stock gained 38% in the past one year, and its 12-month rolling EPS has been upgraded 18% in the same period, with the telecom business at the vanguard of the rating upgrades. The next milestone for stock re-rating is deleveraging, with the company promising to be net debt positive by March 2021.
The capex cycle has already peaked, with Reliance incurring capital expenditure of ₹14,015 crore in the December quarter, about half of the past ten-quarter average of ₹25,342 crore. Cash profit exceeded capex.
Growth in the energy segment was more circumspect due to tapering demand for petroleum products and capacity addition. Gross refining margins (GRM) — or, earnings from turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel — are stable compared with the regional benchmark, Singapore GRM. The regional GRM dropped to $1.2 per barrel, a 69-quarter low, in the December quarter against $6.1 in the previous quarter due to a precipitate fall in the prices of fuel oil. As it has no exposure to fuel oil that suppressed the regional benchmark, RIL’s GRM stood at $9.2 per barrel, a drop of $0.2 per barrel sequentially. The premium of RIL’s GRM to the Singapore GRM expanded to $8 per barrel, a record high.
Historically, the RIL refinery maintained a premium of $4-4.5 to the regional benchmark due to its high complexity. However, the uptick in diesel margins has not materialised as anticipated due to implementation of new sulphur emission norms for ships.
The Street has pruned its GRM projection for FY21 and FY22 by $1-1.5 per barrel and is currently factoring in $11 and $10.5, respectively. GRM for RIL for the first nine months of FY20 stood at $8.8 per barrel, compared with $9.5 in the same period in FY19.
Moderation in global growth weighed on the petrochemical business. Consequently, prices of paraxylene, PTA and ethylene dropped 2-12% sequentially. This affected revenue and profitability of the petroleum segment. Operating profit of the petrochemical segment dropped 28% to ₹5,880 crore and margins reduced 209 basis points to 15.9%.
By contrast, operating profit in the telecom segment climbed 38% to ₹5,601 crore. It added 15 million subscribers and average revenue per user (ARPU) rose to ₹128.4, boosted by increase in tariffs and broader industry<\/a> measures on IUC<\/a> charges. With the Supreme Court ruling on adjusted gross revenue (AGR<\/a>) liabilities likely to reduce competition further, the telecom business is expected to turn in an even better performance.
According to Motilal Oswal, the adverse position of Vodafone Idea could result in market share gains for Reliance Jio<\/a> and Bharti Airtel, potentially boosting EBITDA by as much as ₹25,000 crore.
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