Reliance Jio sees 2020 net profit jump by 88%

Indian telco Reliance Jio has completed another blockbuster year of financial results, with its standalone net profit increasing 88% to ₹5,562 crore -- approximately $737.5 million -- for the full year ended March 31.

For the fourth quarter alone, standalone net profit was ₹2,331 from standalone revenue of ₹14,835 crore. Standalone earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) for the fourth quarter was ₹6,201 crore.

The company said it now has 387.5 million subscribers, an increase of 26% year-on-year, with monthly average revenue per user of ₹130.6, or $1.73.

Data usage grew by 34% to 12.84EB and voice usage increased 21% year-on-year to 876 billion minutes. On a per-user basis, this translates to monthly data usage of 11.3GB and 771 minutes each. Over 70% of data is used for video, the telco said.

Jio said it had a handle on network pressures due to the coronavirus pandemic, with data increasing by more than 50% on its network.

"There has been zero impact on network performance despite disruptions due to high degree of virtualization and network automation," the company said. "Traffic surge has been handled with a combination of capacity augmentation and technology."

For Reliance's digital services division, of which Jio is part of, revenue for the fourth quarter increased 30% year-on-year to ₹18,632 crore and EBIT grew 54% to ₹4,104 crore. For the full year, revenue was up 41% to ₹68,462 crore and EBIT jumped 64% to ₹14,363 crore.

Last month, Facebook parted with $5.7 billion, or ₹43,574 crore, to become the largest minority shareholder in Reliance Jio with just shy of 10% of equity.

The social network said the reason for its investment was to boost India's digital economy, especially its 60 million small businesses.

"For instance, by bringing together JioMart, Jio's small business initiative, with the power of WhatsApp, we can enable people to connect with businesses, shop and ultimately purchase products in a seamless mobile experience," the company said in a blog post.

"Our efforts with Jio will be focused on opening new doors and fueling India's economic growth and the prosperity of its people."

Overall, for the petrochemical-powered Reliance behemoth, the company surpassed ₹100,000 crore in full year EBITDA for the first time, clocking ₹102,280 crore, up 10% on last year. Revenue for the full year grew 5.4% to ₹659,205 crore.

Related Coverage

• Facebook ploughs $5.7 billion into Indian telco Jio
• Reliance Jio added 90 million subscribers during 2019 to sit at 370 million
• Edtech thrives during coronavirus-hit exam season in India
• Samsung Networks and Jio team up for Indian first responder network demo
• Reliance Jio and Microsoft sign 10-year cloud agreement