OREANDA-NEWS. Highlights of Quarter's Performance

Revenue (turnover) increased by 14.2% to ' 106,523 crore (USD 17.0 billion)

Exports increased by 34.9% to ' 77,429 crore (USD 12.4 billion)

PBDIT increased to ' 9,909 crore (USD 1.6 billion)

Profit Before Tax increased to ' 6,871 crore (USD 1.1 billion)

Cash Profit decreased by 1.5% to ' 7,668 crore (USD 1.2 billion)

Net Profit increased by 1.5% to ' 5,490 crore (USD 0.9 billion)

Gross Refining Margin at USD 7.7 /bbl for the quarter ended 30th September 2013

Corporate Highlights

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and BP announced a new gas condensate discovery off the east coast of India in the Cauvery basin. The discovery, in the deepwater block CY-DWN- 2001/2 (CYD5), is situated 62 kilometers from the coast in the Cauvery Basin and is the second gas discovery in the block. RIL is the operator with 70% equity and BP has a 30% share. Well CYIII-D5-S1 was drilled in a water depth of 1,743 meters, to a total depth of 5,731 meters, with the primary objective of exploring Mesozoic-aged reservoirs.

In July 2013, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has inked a Memorandum of Understanding with the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to explore the possibility of sharing RIL's infrastructural facility in the East Coast. In line with global practice of sharing infrastructure, the MoU aims at working out the modalities for sharing of infrastructure, identifying additional requirements as well as firming up the commercial terms.

RIL and its partners BP and NIKO announced a significant gas and condensate discovery in the KG-D6 block off the eastern coast of India. The KG-D6-MJ1 well was drilled in a water depth of 1,024 metres - and to a total depth of 4,509 metres - to explore the prospectivity of a Mesozoic Synrift Clastic reservoir lying over 2,000 metres below the already producing reservoirs in the D1-D3 gas fields. The discovery, named 'D55', has been notified to the Government of India (GoI) and the Management Committee of the block. This discovery is expected to add to the hydrocarbon resources in the KG-D6 block. Appraisal will now commence to better define the scale and quality of the field.

In April 2013, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited and Bharti Airtel Limited signed an Indefeasible Right to Use (IRU) Agreement, under which Bharti will provide Reliance Jio data capacity on its i2i submarine cable. Reliance Jio will utilize a dedicated fiber pair on i2i. The high speed link will enable Reliance Jio to extend its network and service reach to customers across Asia Pacific region.

In April 2013, Telekom Malaysia Berhad ™ (Malaysia), Vodafone Group (UK), Omantel (Oman), Etisalat (UAE), Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (India) and Dialog Axiata (Sri Lanka) - signed the Construction and Maintenance Agreement (C&MA) and the Supply Contract for “Bay Of Bengal Gateway” Cable System (BBG) in Kuala Lumpur. The construction of BBG is planned not only to provide connectivity between South East Asia, South Asia and the Middle East, but also to Europe, Africa and to the Far East Asia through interconnections with other existing and newly built cable systems landing in India, the Middle East and the Far East Asia.

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited and Reliance Communications Limited signed of a definitive agreement for sharing of RCOM's nationwide telecom towers infrastructure. Under the terms of the agreement, Reliance Jio Infocomm will utilise upto 45,000 ground and rooftop based towers across RCOM's nationwide network for accelerated roll-out of its state-of-the-art 4G services. The agreement provides for joint working arrangements to configure the scope of additional towers to be built at new locations to ensure deep penetration and seamless delivery of next generation services.

Standard & Poor's raised the long-term corporate credit rating on Reliance to 'BBB+' from 'BBB', one of the highest ratings by S&P for an Indian corporate and the highest rating by S&P for an Indian Oil & Gas company. The new rating which is two notches above the S&P rating for the Indian sovereign is testament to Reliance's strong financial and business profile. Furthermore, Reliance is the only Asian company in the oil & gas sector to be rated two notches above the sovereign by S&P. With this upgrade, Reliance is now rated higher than some of its global emerging market peers demonstrating the strength and competitive position of Reliance in the refining and petrochemicals sector. The rating also underpins Reliance's position as a leading large scale, integrated and efficient oil refining and petrochemicals Company.

Commenting on the results, Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited said: “RIL's first half performance reflects the resilience of our business model in a period of volatility and uncertainty. Our diversified and integrated petrochemicals business captured margins across segments - delivering near-record profit levels even as the domestic economy slowed. Optimal utilization of best-in-class refinery assets and inherent flexibility in sourcing, product delivery contributed to healthy operating profits from our refining business. Retail business continues to break new ground, growing 41% in 1H FY14. Reliance's ongoing countercyclical investments will strengthen our competitive position in each business segment. ”