Reliance Industries (RIL), India’s largest conglomerate by market capitalisation, has opened FY26 on a high note, posting its highest-ever quarterly consolidated net profit and Ebitda for the April-June quarter.
Driven by a stellar performance across its consumer-facing businesses—telecom, retail and media—and aided by a windfall gain from divestments, RIL’s consolidated net profit surged 76% year-on-year to ₹30,681 crore in Q1 FY26, comfortably outpacing Bloomberg’s estimate of ₹20,059 crore. Consolidated Ebitda rose 35.7% to ₹58,024 crore, with margins expanding 460 basis points to 21.2%.
“Reliance has begun FY26 with a robust, all-round operational and financial performance," said Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh D. Ambani, while addressing shareholders post the earnings announcement. “We are on track to double our businesses every four to five years.”
Big Numbers, Bigger Drivers
Total income for the quarter, including other income, stood at ₹2,63,779 crore, up from ₹2,36,217 crore in the same period last fiscal. However, a chunk of the profit spike stemmed from a ₹8,924 crore gain on the sale of Reliance’s stake in Asian Paints, part of the ₹15,119 crore in other income reported for the quarter.
Excluding these proceeds, core operations still put in a healthy show as Ebitda rose 15% and consolidated net profit grew 25% year-on-year, hinting towards strong underlying growth across verticals.
Here's What Worked
Telecom: Jio AirFiber Fuels Subscriber Surge
Reliance Jio continues to be the juggernaut it promised to be for RIL. With a subscriber base now at 498 million, Jio added nearly 10 million users during the quarter. More than that, its 5G user base crossed 200 million, while home broadband connections shot past 20 million, making its JioAirFiber the largest Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) service globally.
ARPU (average revenue per user) rose nearly 15% on year to ₹208.8, pointing towads improved monetisation. Jio Platforms posted 18.8% revenue growth to ₹41,054 crore, with Ebitda up 23.9% at ₹18,135 crore and margins at a formidable 51.8%.
Chairman Akash Ambani highlighted new service launches like JioGames Cloud and JioPC bundles to accelerate digital adoption, while pointing out that Jio’s infrastructure backbone would be critical in ushering in the AI wave in India.
Retail: Brick, Click and a Dash of Quick
Reliance Retail Ventures, helmed by Isha Ambani, posted a 28.3% jump in consolidated net profit to ₹3,271 crore, with revenue from operations growing 11.3% on year to ₹73,720 crore. Ebitda rose 12.7% to ₹6,381 crore, with a stable margin of 8.7%.
Store count expanded by 388 new outlets, taking the total to 19,592 across 77.6 million square feet. Quick commerce was a stand-out story: JioMart Quick’s daily order volume soared 175% YoY and 68% QoQ, now live in over 4,200 pincodes.
Meanwhile, fashion verticals under GAP, Azorte, and Yousta grew 59% YoY, and AJIO’s 4-hour delivery service, AJIO Rush, went live in six cities, expanding its online catalogue by 44% to 2.6 million SKUs.
“Reliance Retail delivered a resilient performance driven by operational excellence, sharper assortments, and deeper regional penetration,” Isha Ambani said.
Media & IPL: JioStar’s Glorious Run
The media arm, JioStar, clocked record revenues of ₹11,222 crore, riding high on the IPL. Ebitda came in at ₹1,017 crore, with peak IPL concurrency hitting 55.2 million viewers. JioHotstar delivered its biggest ever IPL season, with 652 million digital viewers.
TV viewership also surged, reaching over 800 million, giving the network a 35.5% share in the entertainment TV segment.
New Energy: Giga Plans, Green Dreams
On the New Energy front, Reliance said it is on track to commission its giga-factories over the next 4–6 quarters. The plan includes a fully integrated green hydrogen and chemicals ecosystem, powered by renewable electricity from Kutch and a dedicated transmission line to Jamnagar.
“New Energy will be a self-funded platform in the next few years and deliver perpetual growth to RIL shareholders,” the company said.
Here's What Didn't Work
Oil-to-Chemicals (O2C) Suffers A Bit
Revenue for the RIL’s flagship heavyweight O2C segment dipped 1.5% to ₹1,54,804 crore due to lower crude prices and planned maintenance. But Ebitda climbed 10.8% to ₹14,511 crore, with margins up 110 bps to 9.4%.
Improved transportation fuel margins and domestic fuel retail margins helped cushion the topline pressure. However, polyester margins remained soft, and lower volumes from a planned shutdown played spoilsport.
Oil & Gas Sees Modest Slippage
The Oil & Gas segment reported a 1.2% decline in revenue to ₹6,103 crore, while Ebitda slipped 4.1% to ₹4,996 crore due to lower KG-D6 volumes and subdued CBM prices. However, the segment held on to a robust Ebitda margin of 81.9%, despite increased maintenance costs.
Rising Capex Needs
Despite the blockbuster quarter, net debt crept up to ₹1,17,581 crore, marginally higher than both QoQ and YoY figures. However, this reflects capex intensity across digital infrastructure, new energy and retail expansion rather than financial stress.
Mukesh Ambani’s tone on the earnings call was cautiously optimistic. “We are creating platforms of the future across energy, commerce, connectivity and content that will not only scale rapidly but also catalyse India's digital and green transformation.”
