40% tariff hike boosts Reliance Jio’s profit by 73% in just three months ⁠— and there’s a lot more coming from the Mukesh Ambani stable

• Reliance Jio’s profits increased by 73% in the last quarter on the back of tariff hikes and reversal of provision on AGR dues.
• The company also announced a new video conferencing platform called JioMeet, taking on Google Meet and Zoom.
• Jio was most recently valued at nearly ₹4.4 lakh crore after the 9.9% stake sale to Facebook.

Reliance Jio profits jumped by more than 73% in the fourth quarter, rising to ₹2,331 crore in the last three months. A big chunk of this profit came from the 40% hike in tariffs in December.

People are paying more and still consuming more data — wireless data traffic is up 34% compared to the quarter ended December 2019. Jio’s subscriber base is up 26% to 387.5 million compared to the same time last year.


Data usage is likely to rise further in the April-June quarter as people have been locked indoors due to the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus. Jio was most recently valued at nearly ₹4.4 lakh crore ($5.7 billion) after the stake sale to Facebook.

The deal has added a new business segment altogether

The partnership between Jio and Facebook is likely to be a big money spinner for both Ambani and Mark Zuckerberg. “Our focus will be India’s 60 million micro, small and medium businesses, 120 million farmers, 30 million small merchants and millions of small and medium enterprises in the informal sector.”

So much so that, RIL has decided to segregate 'financial services' as a separate business segment ⁠— and this will include treasury investment activities, payment bank, consumer lending business, insurance broking business among others. Most of these businesses will either be born, or will get a boost, from the Facebook deal.

Aside from the financial units, the partnership with Facebook will also give birth to the Jio Meet video conferencing platform that will take on the likes of Google Meet, Zoom, Skype and the likes.

Jio, India’s first data-only telecom company, announced an increase in both subscriber base as well as data consumption. Jio revealed that its subscriber base grew by 17.5 million users to 387.5 million.

See also:

Mukesh Ambani offers Reliance Industries shareholders 1 new share for every 15 held⁠— at a price 14% below market value

Reliance Retail’s operating profit grows nearly 20% in the latest fourth quarter⁠⁠

To be India’s Alibaba, Mukesh Ambani wants a super app with Facebook⁠— but an all-in-one app is not known to work so far