Reliance Jio Reports 182.8% Hike In Profit As Telecom Revenue Surges With 398 Mn Users

Reliance Industries’s digital venture Jio Platforms has recorded INR 2,520 Cr ($336 Mn) net profit in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021, noting a 182.8% hike from INR 891 Cr (nearly $118 Mn at current exchange rate) recorded in Q1 FY2020.

The Mukesh Ambani-led company’s operating revenues shot up by 33.7% to INR 16,557 Cr in the quarter from INR 12, 383 Cr in the same period last year. Reliance’s Jio Platforms value of services has also increased at the same rate from INR 14,593 Cr to INR 19,513 Cr last quarter.

Meanwhile, Reliance Jio’s average revenue per user (ARPU) is currently at INR 140 per subscriber in this quarter, with total wireless data traffic noting a 30.2% YoY hike to 1,420 Cr GB or 14.2 exabytes this quarter. The company has also recorded a 13.2% YoY increase in total voice traffic to 88,944 Cr minutes. The company’s total userbase as of June 30 was at 398.3 Bn.

Commenting on the results, Reliance Industries’ chairperson and managing director Mukesh Ambani, said, “Jio started with a vision of connecting everything by building a robust and secure wireless and digital network and extending the benefits of digital connectivity to everyone in India.”

He also touched upon Jio Platform’s massive funding streak in the same time period. The company had raised over INR 152,056 Cr (nearly $20 Bn) from 13 marquee investors like Google, Facebook, Qualcomm and others. Reliance Jio Platforms also onboarded sovereign funds like Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) as investors.

This fundraises not only made Reliance Industries net-debt free, but also catapulted Ambani to the fifth spot in the Forbes billionaire’s list, surpassing SpaceX and Tesla’s Elon Musk, and Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Ambani is currently valued at $72.4 Bn, which is higher than Jio Platforms’ $65 Mn valuation.

Ambani further added, “Jio Platforms Limited with partnerships across promising Indian startups and globally renowned technology companies is set to drive the next leg of hyper-growth for digital businesses. Our growth strategy is aimed at meeting the needs of all the 1.3 billion Indians. We remain focused on playing a leading role India’s transformation into a Digital Society.”

Reliance Industries had founded Jio Platforms last year to act as an umbrella company for all its digital services including Reliance Jio, MyJio, JioTV, JioCinema, JioNews and JioSaavn. The subsidiary also looks after other RIL’s digital entities such as technology-based initiatives in education, healthcare and agriculture services. Now, Reliance Industries is looking to boost these services more with series of acquisitions. According to media reports, Reliance is in talks to acquire healthtech and pharmacy platform Netmeds.

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