The net profit for the first nine months ending December 2004 was placed at Rs 5280 crore (Rs 52.80 billion) compared to Rs 3741 crore (Rs 37.41 billion) during April-December 2003.

According to the financial performance considered at the Board meeting of the flagship company in Mumbai, chaired by Mukesh Ambani, the turnover for the first nine months was placed at Rs 68,535 crore (Rs 685.35 billion), reflecting an increase of 27 per cent over Rs 54,066 crore (Rs 540.66 billion) during April-December 2003, sources said.

Exports during the nine-month period rose to Rs 16,205 crore (Rs 162.05 billion) as compared to Rs 10,755 crore (Rs 107.55 billion) in the previous period while the production of oil, gas and petrochemicals increased to 9.4 million tonnes as against 9.2 million tonnes for the corresponding previous year.

The company's refinery operated at 96 per cent capacity and processed 23.69 million tonnes of crude for nine months.

Under the buyback programme, which opened on January 10, 2005, Reliance bought back 26,69,495 shares at an average price of Rs 522 per share amounting to Rs 139.46 crore (Rs 1.39 billion). Earnings per share for the nine months stood at Rs 37.8.

RIL said the net profit after consolidating the financials of subsidiaries and associate companies, including Reliance LNG, Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings, Reliance Ventures, Reliance Power Ventures and Reliance Energy [Get Quote] stood at Rs 5,360 crore (Rs 53.60 billion) as against Rs 3,944 crore (Rs 39.44 billion).

It also includes financials of Reliance Communications [Get Quote] Infrastructure and its subsidiaries, including Reliance Infocomm and Reliance Telecom.

RIL has till date commissioned over 280 retail outlets with significant throughput per outlet than the established industry norms.

Its operating margins on net sales for the nine months maintained at 19 per cent due to higher product selling prices, productivity and efficiency offset by higher raw material prices.

In the petrochemicals sector, RIL's production volumes of PFY, PSF and PET increased by ten per cent to 7.62 lakh tonnes while the production volumes of PP, PE and PVC rose four per cent to 14.41 lakh tonnes.

The company is setting up an additional polyester capacity of 5.5 lakh tonnes per annum to be commissioned by the last quarter of 2005-06 while the new PTA plant of 5.32 lakh tonnes would be commissioned by second quarter of 2006-07.

The Panna-Mukta fields produced 9.77 tonnes of crude oil and 34.77 billion cubic feet of gas during the nine months ended December 31, 2004 while the Tapti field produced 52.96 billion cubic feet of gas.