MOSCOW, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's railroad monopoly Russian Railways (RZD) will receive net profit of 9 billion rubles (about $333 million) in 2006, the transportation minister said Thursday.
The company's rate of return will be 1.1%, Igor Levitin told a government session while presenting RZD's investment program and financial plan for 2007-2009.
RZD received a net profit of 9.7 billion rubles (about $339 million) in 2005.
Levitin said the company's three-year financial plan projects faster growth in revenue compared to expenditure, and as a result, "an increase in net profit from 10.1 billion rubles [about $375 million] in 2007 to 40.8 billion rubles [about $1.5 billion] in 2009."
But the minister said RZD's rate of return in the three-year period would remain considerably lower than that of some other natural monopolies.
