Reliance Jio Q2 profit up 23% at ₹6,539 cr; tariff hike causes SIM consolidation

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm has recorded a 23.4% year-on-year rise in net profit at ₹6,539 crore for the July-September quarter for FY2024-25 from ₹5,299 crore in the year-ago period, according to the company's latest financial results statement. The financial results came following Reliance Jio's 25% price hike in tariffs on June 27, 2024.

The tariff hike possibly caused some "consolidation" and monthly churn surged to 2.8%. "Limited amount of SIM consolidation (was) observed after the tariff hike in Q2 FY25, offsetting continued strength in gross addition; monthly churn increased to 2.8%," says the company.

The company's Q2 FY25 ARPU increased to ₹195.1, with the partial follow-through of the tariff hike and a better subscriber mix. "The full impact of the tariff hike will flow through in the next 2-3 quarters," says the company.

Reliance Jio's consolidated revenue for the said quarter stood at ₹31,709 crore, up 18% year-on-year from ₹26,875 crore in the year-ago period.

Reliance Jio parent Jio Platforms' Q2 FY2024-25 EBIDTA increased by 17.8% Y-o-Y to ₹15,931 crore, while Jio's subscriber base stood at 478.8 million by the end of Sept '24 quarter, a 4.2% YoY increase.

The company says its customer engagement levels "continued to remain strong", with total data and voice traffic increasing by 24% to 45.0 bn GB and 6.4% Y-o-Y to 1.42 trillion minutes, respectively.

The company says it has crossed 147 million subscribers on True5G in less than two years of launch and continues to be the largest 5G operator outside China.

In the home connections segment, RIL says JioAirFiber’s rapid uptake has accelerated the pace, with 2.8 million connections as of September 2024. "Jio’s pace of home connections is the fastest of its kind globally," the company claims.

Reliance Jio had earlier introduced new mobile data plans with higher tariffs, which were applicable from July 3, 2024. For example, Jio's cheapest monthly plan earlier cost ₹155 for 2GB of data and was valid for 28 days. The price of this plan was hiked to ₹189—an increase of 22%.

The parent company Reliance Industries Ltd's consolidated revenue stood at ₹258,027 crore ($30.8 billion), a marginal YoY increase of 0.2%. The Q2 FY25 consolidated EBITDA also declined to ₹43,934 crore ($5.2 billion).

Reliance's consolidated profit after tax and share of profit/(loss) of associates & JVs decreased 2.8% Y-o-Y to ₹19,323 crore, says the company. The profit dipped 5% YoY to ₹16,563 crore for the quarter ended September 2024 from ₹17,394 crore in the year-ago period.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) shares closed higher at 0.11% on Monday. For the first quarter ended June 30, 2024, RIL saw its net profit falling by 5.5% year-on-year to ₹15,138 crore as compared with ₹16,011 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue from operations rose 12% to ₹236,217 crore in Q1 FY25 as against ₹210,831 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. EBITDA increased by 2% year-on-year to ₹ 42,748 crore.