Russian Railways must revise investment model to focus on own funds, not loans - CEO Belozerov

MOSCOW. Feb 11 (Interfax) - JSC Russian Railways must revise its investment model to focus on its own funds rather than on loans, RZD CEO Oleg Belozerov said on Tuesday during an interview with Rossiya 24 TV.

"The key rate certainly affects the decisions we reach, since the rate has grown from just over 7% per annum to 21% pa in the past two years, and there are related payments as well. This has of course affected us, and our payments have increased naturally," Belozerov said.

"Our investment model was initially set up to attract funds. Why? Because it is more convenient, not to take money from shippers immediately, but to spread the possibility of repayment over an extended period of time together with banks, to work, so-called, 'on the fly'. Namely, as soon as we ship, we receive money, and we return money to the banks. However, those initial financial and economic calculations have undergone changes. Of course, the rate affects them. We need to clarify the investment model now. We are changing it, and we will need to focus primarily on our own sources. We are currently working on possible options for attracting not only bank loans, though this does not happen quickly, as changes require time. On the other hand, the investment program is within parameters that would probably deliver the country's top-priority tasks in terms of Russian Railways, he said.

As reported, Russian Railways' investment program has been approved at 890.9 billion rubles for 2025 compared to around 1.275 trillion rubles in 2024. Actual implementation of the investment program for 2024 has not yet been announced.