India’s Reliance Industries Q1 profit misses estimates on lower fuel sales margin

India’s Reliance Industries, a retail-to-telecom conglomerate, reported first-quarter profit on Friday that missed estimates, hurt by lower margins on fuel sales.

The billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led company, India’s largest by market value, said its consolidated profit fell to 151.38 billion rupees ($1.81 billion) in the April-to-June quarter, from 160.11 billion rupees a year earlier.
Analysts had estimated a profit of 162.87 billion rupees, according to LSEG data.

Oil-to-chemicals earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation fell by 14.3% from a year ago to 130.93 billion rupees, due to lower transportation fuel cracks, particularly gasoline cracks, which were down 30%, Reliance said in a statement.

“The business was impacted by lower fuel cracks with tepid global demand and ramp-up of new refineries,” Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, said in a statement.