Reliance Retail earnings beat driven by revival in footfalls, digital integration

Reliance Retail reported record revenue for the September quarter that also surpassed brokerage estimates. The consumer retail arm of Reliance Industries Ltd. reported revenue of Rs 64,936 crore. On a year-on-year basis, revenue increased 11 percent.

The figure was higher than the Rs 62,140 crore that broking firm Nomura had projected.

Growth in the topline was led by a revival in footfalls, store additions and digital integrations.

During the September quarter, Reliance Retail opened 795 new stores, taking the total number of operational physical stores to 16,617. Footfalls stood in excess of 180 million, indicating a growth of 23 percent over the pre-COVID period.

As of date, the area of operation for Reliance Retail stands at 54.5 million square feet, compared to 37.3 million square feet during the same period last year.

On the operational front, the company's EBITDA increased 14.7 percent to Rs 4,414 crore, compared to Rs 3,849 crore in the June quarter and also higher than Nomura's estimate of Rs 4,230 crore.

EBITDA margin came in line with expectations of 6.8 percent.

Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh D. Ambani said that the retail business continued to provide a compelling proposition of superior value across consumption baskets and price points.

Reliance Retail's digital commerce and new commerce business with daily orders grew 53 percent on a year-on-year basis.

Market expert Prakash Diwan said there was no taking away from the fact that retail has outshone most expectations. Deven Choksey of KR Choksey Holdings also spoke of the consumer business showing resilience with good numbers compared to the oil-to-chemical (O2C) business.

However, Choksey said that he expected the retail business to deliver an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation — EBITDA is a widely used measure of core corporate profitability — margin of 8 percent due to the addition of premium brands.

Ahead of results, shares of Reliance Industries had ended 1.22 percent lower on Friday at Rs 2,470.