Base effect saves RIL in Q2; holdco discount test looms

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) sailed through the September quarter (Q2FY26) buoyed by a favourable base in the oil to chemicals (O2C), retail and telecom (Jio Platforms Ltd) businesses.

- Manish Joshi

Among them, the performance of the O2C segments critical for RIL's outlook as the other two prepare for listing.

The O2C saw a multi-quarter low Ebitda in Q2FY25, both in absolute terms and per tonne of crude oil throughput (quantity of crude oil processed).

This helped a year-on-year revival in Q2FY26. However, O2C saw 5% sequential decline in Ebitda/tonne of crude oil processed in Q2FY26. Crude oil throughput or volume was up 9% sequentially to 20.8 million tonnes, but it led to just 3% growth in absolute Ebitda as the higher procurement price of crude oil, including shipping costs, is likely to have impacted the per tonne margin adversely.

Overall, RIL’s consolidated Ebitda rose 17.5% year-on-year to %45,885 crore.

With Q2FY26 earnings out of the way, investors may encounter a dilemma—which is the holding company discount. Jio Platforms’ listing is likely in the first half of 2026, which may be followed by Reliance Retail’s listing.