Reliance Industries beat expectations to post a record rise in profit as one-off gains from a pact with BP and rising income from wireless phone services offset declines in the conglomerate’s oil-related businesses.
Net income rose to 132.3 billion rupees ($1.8bn/Dh6.4bn) in the three months ended in June from 101bn rupees a year earlier, India’s largest company by market value said in a filing Thursday. That compares with the average 77.2bn rupees profit estimated by analysts.
The net income includes an exceptional gain of 49.66bn rupees from its transaction to sell 49 per cent of its fuel retail business to BP.
BP has paid $1bn to Reliance Industries for a stake in the latter’s fuel retail business, marking its entry into one of the world’s fastest-growing energy markets. The payment completes a deal announced last year, where BP would own 49 per cent of the joint venture and Reliance the rest.
Reliance has been hurt by a slide in oil prices as the coronavirus pandemic stifles economic activity and damps demand worldwide.
Still, shares of Reliance have more than doubled since late March, as chairman Mukesh Ambani won investments totaling about $20bn into his technology venture, Jio Platforms, from giants including Google and Facebook.
The investors took stakes in Jio Platforms, a holding company that is seeking to tap demand for e-commerce and other technology services in health care and education to reduce the group’s dependence on oil-related earnings.
Investors are awaiting a planned sale of a stake in Reliance’s oil refining and petrochemicals business to Saudi Arabian Oil Company Ambani told shareholders on July 15 that the deal hadn’t progressed as per original timeline. The delay has raised concern the decline in oil prices has made it less attractive.
Reliance’s refining system can process cheap and dirty oil grades into high-value fuels, helping shield it from price drops that have hit state-run peers in India.
Mr Ambani’s success at luring investors has fueled a rally in Reliance shares, which are up more than 140 per cent from a trough in late March.
The stock has also benefited from the company’s improving balance sheet. In June, Reliance said it had achieved its target of zero net debt. The company had previously said it would reach that level by March 2021.
Australia men's Test cricket fixtures 2021/22
One-off Test v Afghanistan:
Nov 27-Dec 1: Blundstone Arena, Hobart
The Ashes v England:
Dec 8-12: 1st Test, Gabba, Brisbane
Dec 16-20: 2nd Test, Adelaide Oval, Adelaide (day/night)
Dec 26-30: 3rd Test, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne
Jan 5-9, 2022: 4th Test, Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
Jan 14-18: 5th Test, Optus Stadium, Perth
Tuesday's fixtures
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Mamo Year it started: 2019 Founders: Imad Gharazeddine, Asim Janjua Based: Dubai, UAE Number of employees: 28 Sector: Financial services Investment: $9.5m Funding stage: Pre-Series A Investors: Global Ventures, GFC, 4DX Ventures, AlRajhi Partners, Olive Tree Capital, and prominent Silicon Valley investors. Teaching your child to save
Pre-school (three - five years)
You can’t yet talk about investing or borrowing, but introduce a “classic” money bank and start putting gifts and allowances away. When the child wants a specific toy, have them save for it and help them track their progress.
Early childhood (six - eight years)
Replace the money bank with three jars labelled ‘saving’, ‘spending’ and ‘sharing’. Have the child divide their allowance into the three jars each week and explain their choices in splitting their pocket money. A guide could be 25 per cent saving, 50 per cent spending, 25 per cent for charity and gift-giving.
Middle childhood (nine - 11 years)
Open a bank savings account and help your child establish a budget and set a savings goal. Introduce the notion of ‘paying yourself first’ by putting away savings as soon as your allowance is paid.
Young teens (12 - 14 years)
Change your child’s allowance from weekly to monthly and help them pinpoint long-range goals such as a trip, so they can start longer-term saving and find new ways to increase their saving.
Teenage (15 - 18 years)
Discuss mutual expectations about university costs and identify what they can help fund and set goals. Don’t pay for everything, so they can experience the pride of contributing.
Young adulthood (19 - 22 years)
Discuss post-graduation plans and future life goals, quantify expenses such as first apartment, work wardrobe, holidays and help them continue to save towards these goals.
* JP Morgan Private Bank
Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
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- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
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Specs
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The specs: 2019 Mercedes-Benz C200 Coupe
Price, base: Dh201,153
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Power: 204hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 300Nm @ 1,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.7L / 100km
COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
AGUERO'S PREMIER LEAGUE RECORD
Apps: 186
Goals: 127
Assists: 31
Wins: 117
Losses: 33
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
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The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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