Reliance Jio Q4 Results: Net profit jumps 13% YoY to ₹5,337 crore
Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of conglomerate Reliance Industries, had a March quarter performance that met certain brokerages’ expectations, with an 11% rise in sales and 13% growth in net profit compared to the same period last year.
Compared to Q3 FY24, net profit increased by 2.5% to ₹5,337 crore, while revenues increased by 2.3% to ₹25,959 crore. On Monday, after market hours, the business disclosed its results.
BofA Securities projected a sales increase of 0-3%, while Morgan Stanley expected a 1.7% sequential increase in net profit. The former also expects flat year-on-year growth in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). Jio’s Ebitda increased 11.5% to ₹13,612 crore from ₹12,210 crore in the same period last year.
In a separate release, the airline stated that one of its two managing directors, Sanjay Mashruwala, had resigned. Mashruwala, 76, is one of Reliance’s longest-serving executives and was close to founder Dhirubhai Ambani. He has been Reliance Jio’s MD since 2013, far before the company’s commercial launch into the Indian telecommunications market in 2016.
The telecom carrier’s average revenue per user (APRU) remained steady at ₹181.7 sequentially, with a stronger subscriber mix largely offset by an increase in promotional 5G traffic, which is supplied limitlessly to users and not charged separately.
It attracted 10.9 million net users during the quarter, bringing India’s largest telco’s total subscriber base to 481.8 million.
In comparison, Bharti Airtel had 377.5 million subscribers as of December 2023 (March data is yet to be announced).
“The digital services segment’s performance has been boosted by an accelerated expansion of subscriber base, which is supported by both mobility and fixed wireless services.” “With over 108 million True 5G customers, Jio truly leads India’s 5G transformation,” stated Mukesh D. Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Limited.
Wireless 5G Broadband Service Jio AirFiber services are now accessible in 5,900 cities and towns across India, with plans to expand to cover the entire country shortly. According to the telecom, AirFiber members use an average of 13 GB of data per day, which is 30% more than JioFiber subscribers.
Jio AirFiber is the telco’s fixed wireless access solution that delivers broadband-like speeds without the requirement for a direct fibre link to the house. The latter is handled by JioFiber.
Jio, which rolled out its 5G network across India within a year of its inception, currently has over 108 million 5G customers, the second biggest base of such users after China, according to Kiran Thomas, CEO of Jio Platforms and President of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.
He said that the 5G network presently transports over 28% of mobility data traffic.
Jio’s financial expenses in Q4FY24 were ₹1,018 crore, down from ₹1,028 crore in December. Customer engagement on the Jio network remained high, with total data and voice traffic growing by 35.2% to 40.9 billion GB and 9.7% to 1.58 trillion minutes, respectively, compared to the same period the previous fiscal.
Thomas also saw an increase in Jio AirFiber demand from tier III and tier IV municipalities, as well as rural areas. The service is now available in 6,000 municipalities, which is translating into increased demand from lower-tier cities. He claimed that the data use was reaching 500 GB per month.
The telecom has targeted hotels, small businesses, schools, colleges, and hospitals as particular categories for implementing software solutions such as information management, surveillance, and entertainment solutions, both independently and through partnerships.
“This increased distribution and presence means that our home strategy will also see an accelerating momentum into the future,” he went on to say.
