Net adrenaline: Reliance Industries net profit jumped 10,000-fold in 40 years

In a rare departure from tradition, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani took time off from hairsplitting over corporate numbers to shed light on the growth of the Reliance behemoth and look back on its long journey since it was founded by his father Dhirubhai Ambani in 1977.

Getting candid at the 40^th Annual General Meeting of RIL, Ambani said that the oil-to-telecom conglomerate's net profit has jumped 10,000 times over the last 40 years -- from a mere Rs 3 crore to Rs 30,000 crore, the Economic Times (ET) reported.

Revenues of the corporate giant jumped 4,700 times to over Rs 3,30,000 crore now from Rs 70 crore in 1977, while market capitalisation has soared a massive 50,000 times to Rs 5 lakh crore currently from only Rs 10 crore in 1977, Mukesh Ambani said.

"Every Rs 1,000 invested in Reliance Industries' shares in 1977 is now worth Rs 16.5 lakh," Ambani said in a report by online news channel Daijiworld.com on Friday.

This has led to the company's shareholder money doubling every 2.5 years. On the occasion of the AGM, RIL announced bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1 to mark the company's 40th year of IPO. This is the country's largest bonus issue in India so far.

RIL, which launched the successful Jio mobile phone network over a year back, has seen its turnover zoom from a modest Rs 70 crore in 1977 to Rs 3.3 lakh crore currently, which represents a 4,700-time growth in revenue, the chairman told shareholders, who responded with thunderous applause.

Nobody believed that we would attract customers fast enough to justify our Rs 4,00,000 crore investment, but Reliance Jio stunned the world with achieving a 100 million customer target within 170 days, Mukesh Ambani was quoted as saying by ET.

Noting that India has overtaken US and China in mobile data usage, Ambani said that Jio has witnessed faster growth than Facebook, Skype and Whatsapp. Starting March of this year, Jio has successfully managed to shift subscribers from free to paid services, the largest in history, Ambani said.

In just 6 months, with 100 million paid customers, Jio has jumped data consumption from 20 crore GB per month to 120 crore GB per month.

● Reliance saw 4,700 times increase in turnover in the last 40 years.

● Its net profit rose from Rs 3 crore to Rs 30,000 crore during the same period. A 10,000 times increase in net profit

● RIL's assets which stood at Rs 32 cr in 1977, is at a staggering Rs 7,00,000 crore today, a multiple of 20,000 times

● The company's market capitalistion multiplied from Rs 10 crore in 1977 to Rs 5 lakh crore, multiplying a whopping 50,000 times.

● Rs 1,000 invested in the company's stock is today worth Rs 16.5 lakh, which means that the investors' money doubled every 2.5 years.

● From 3,500 employees in 1977, all of RIL's businesses put together today employ 2,50,000 people worldwide.

On Thursday, RIL posted a healthy 9 per cent rise in its standalone net profit for the first quarter of 2017 ended June at Rs 8,196 crore on the back of higher margins from its petrochemicals business and a one-time gain from sale of stake in Gulf Africa Petro.

The company had registered standalone net profit of Rs 7,548 crore during the April-June quarter. The figures reflect the performance of the company's refining, petrochemicals and hydrocarbon exploration businesses.

The gross refining margin (GRM), derived from conversion of a barrel of crude oil to refined products, was $11.9 in the quarter under consideration, compared to $11.5 in the same period a year ago.

Capital expenditure for the first quarter ending June 30, 2017, was Rs 25,192 crore, including exchange rate difference capitalisation. Capital expenditure was principally on account of ongoing projects in the petrochemicals and refining business at Jamnagar and digital services business.

During the quarter, the company said employee cost increased by 16.3 per cent at Rs 2,455 crore as against Rs 2,111 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year due to increased employee base and higher payouts.

Buoyed by the company results and optimistic outlook for its marquee petrochemicals and refining businesses, shares of the company on Friday were trading 3.78 per cent up at Rs 1,586.50 around 12.35 pm (IST). Shares of the company opened at Rs 1,554 and touched a high and low of Rs 1,588.20 and Rs 1,544.40, respectively.

The stock closed trading hours at Rs 1,586.20, up 3.76 percent over the previous day's close.