Mumbai: Reliance Industries, which Monday reported a 1.7 percent rise in net profit at Rs 5,972 crore for the three months to September, expects up to Rs 10,000 crore capital expenditure in the remaining part of this fiscal.
"We have already invested Rs 30,000 crore in the second quarter, and Rs 15,000 crore in Q1. We hope our capex should be in the range of Rs 5,000-Rs 10,000 crore in the remaining part of the fiscal," Reliance Group chief financial officer Alok Agarwal told reporters here this evening while announcing the Q2 earnings.
At the AGM, group Chairman Mukesh Ambani had told shareholders that the country's largest private sector corporate would be investing Rs 1.8 trillion in capex over the next three years.
RIL shares today closed 0.26 percent down on the BSE at Rs 957.85. The earning numbers were announced after the close of market hours.
The RIL counter this year so far gained 7 percent, while the Sensex rallied more than 26 percent year-to-date.
Meanwhile, RIL reported a marginal 1.7 percent rise in post tax profit at Rs 5,972 crore, helped by strong growth in refining margins which neutralised slump in oil and gas.
RIL, which operates the world's biggest oil refinery complex in Jamnagar, earned USD 8.3 for turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in Q2 compared to USD 7.7 a barrel gross refining margin a year ago. The GRM, however, was lower than USD 8.7 per barrel in the previous April-June quarter.
Turnover dropped 4.3 percent to Rs 113,396 crore due to lower crude oil prices and volumes mainly in the refining and oil and gas business. Exports, too, dipped 14.7 percent to Rs 66,065 crore (USD 10.7 billion) as against Rs 77,428 crore in the year ago period.
"Renewed optimism in the domestic economy augurs well for business and consumer confidence particularly against the backdrop of continuing concerns on global economic growth.
"We expect to create significant value for our stakeholders over the next 12-18 months as we complete our large investment programme across energy and consumer businesses. These projects will propel the next phase of growth for Reliance," Ambani said in a statement.
He said the company is investing close to USD 16 billion in expanding petrochemical production capacity and to lower feed and fuel costs to boost profits.
It is investing USD 4.6 billion in an integrated gasification combined cycle project that will convert captive petrocoke to synthetic gas (syngas) which can be used to generate power, steam and hydrogen, which currently are being produced using expensive imported LNG.
The firm will spend another USD 1.5 billion to import ethane from the US to replace higher cost propane imports and naphtha, he said, adding all these projects will be completed by FY'18.
While the company's debt rose to Rs 1,42,084 crore from Rs 1,35,769 crore in Q1, cash-in-hand rose to Rs 83,456 crore (USD 13.5 billion) in Q2 from Rs 81,559 crore at the end of previous first quarter.
