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Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL) consolidated Ebitda inched up just 0.7% year-on-year to ₹44,141 crore in the March quarter (Q4FY26). Ordinarily, that wouldn’t cheer investors—but given the impact of the West Asia war on the O2C (oil-to-chemicals) segment, it is a reasonably good outcome.
The O2C business, which contributed one-third of RIL’s total Ebitda in the quarter, faced crude availability constraints and a surge in costs such as freight and insurance. As a result, operating profit weakened.
Production volume meant for sale declined 4% year-on-year to 17.2 million tonnes, even as Ebitda per tonne remained almost unchanged at ₹8,442.
Per-tonne profitability stayed resilient despite under-recoveries in petroleum products. Since state-owned oil marketing companies did not hike fuel prices, RIL too refrained from doing so. Petrochemical margins were also hit, with polyethylene and polypropylene spreads dropping.
Consequently, O2C Ebitda fell 4% year-on-year to ₹14,520 crore, tracking the lower production.
Retail was the standout performer in Q4. Revenue rose 14% to ₹87,344 crore, after removing FMCG revenue of Reliance Consumer Products (demerged with effect from December) from the base quarter.
This growth far outpaced the 4% increase in store count and the 1% expansion in total store area. For a pure offline retailer, that would imply strong same-store sales growth (SSSG). However, that’s not entirely the case here.
Management stated in the earnings call that SSSG was in healthy single-digit, with the remaining contribution coming from online sales growth—quick commerce and e-commerce.
The rapid expansion in online sales is now visible in profitability. Retail Ebitda rose just 3% year-on-year to ₹6,690 crore despite strong revenue growth. Ebitda margin declined 62 basis points to 7.66%, the lowest in at least the past fourteen quarters.
The muted Ebitda performance can be attributed to hyper-local commerce, which offers fast delivery from nearby stores. Average daily hyper-local orders jumped over 300% year-on-year and 29% QoQ, increasing delivery costs and weighing on margins.
When asked about faster Ebitda growth, management cited margin pressures from hyper local commerce i.e online platforms.
Notably, Eternal Ltd’s quick commerce arm Blinkit is targeting an Ebitda margin of 5% in the long run. If a rival is comfortable with that level of profitability, Reliance Retail may have to continue compromising on margins to grow aggressively while staying competitive.
Another notable trend—though still small in size—is the performance of Jio Platforms Ltd’s (JPL) non-connectivity business, which includes enterprise operations and contributed 13% to JPL’s revenue.
Non-connectivity Ebitda soared 44% QoQ to ₹1,289 crore. Operating leverage appears to be kicking in, as Ebitda growth far outpaced the 8% QoQ revenue rise to ₹4,878 crore.
Meanwhile, JPL’s connectivity (telecom) business reported revenue and Ebitda growth of 2% QoQ, with no major tariff hikes. ARPU remained sequentially flat at ₹214.
JPL’s public issue is on track, though management did not provide a specific timeline. Separately, an early resolution of the West Asia conflict could ease pressure on the O2C business.
Clarity on either front could spark fresh investor interest in the stock, which trades at 20x FY27 Bloomberg consensus EPS estimates. That is not expensive.