MOSCOW, October 28 (RIA Novosti) - The rail monopoly, Russian Railways (RZD), warned that its net profits for 2008 are expected to be 50% less than predicted due to the ongoing global financial crisis, RZD CEO Vladimir Yakunin said on Tuesday.
"We expect it to drop two times compared with the forecast," Yakunin said, declining to give an exact figure.
In the first six months of 2008, RZD posted net profits under Russian Accounting Standards of 25.3 billion rubles ($1 billion).
The RZD chief also said the rail monopoly planned to cut its investment program in 2009 by 50 billion rubles ($1.8 billion) from the 480 billion rubles ($17.5 billion) projected for next year.
Yakunin also said that if the rail monopoly receives state support, then RZD investment cuts in 2009 could be less than 50 billion rubles.
