Reliance Retail posts highest ever PBDIT, revenues

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries on Monday said it posted a profit before depreciation, interest and tax (PBDIT) at Rs 186 crore and revenues at Rs 4,167 crore in second quarter of 2014-15 ended September. Both PBDIT and revenues were highest in any quarter.

"As in the previous quarter, gross margin improvement with variable expense control and leverage of fixed expenses contributed to the strong PBDIT performance," the company stated. PBDIT of the company's retail business grew 96 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

"Despite persistent inflation and slow consumption growth, second quarter revenue for Reliance Retail grew by 20 per cent year-on-year to Rs 4,167 crore," RIL said.

Chief Financial Officer Alok Agarwal said the company was looking to launch e-commerce portals for its value business and looking to drive synergies from TV18 group that it owns.

All its formats saw a like-to-like growth of 21 per cent during the quarter and the company's store count crossed 2,000 in 155 cities.

Reliance said digital segment added 262 stores in the quarter taking the total to 689 stores across the country.