Despite the complicated economic situation, in 2013 South Caucasus Railway (SCR) CJSC ensured profit, which, however, considerably dropped as compared with the previous year, Russian Railway President Vladimir Yakunin said during the commissioning of two SCR industrial complexes on Wednesday. (For the first time, the company started operating at a profit in 2011. In 2012 the SCR net profit totaled 40 mln RUR - editor's note).
Yakunin pointed out that the annual general meeting was held Wednesday morning and SCR CEO Viktor Rebets made a report. The shareholders said that the company demonstrated profit at the yearend of 2013, but that profit was much lower than in the previous year, Yakunin said. He added that the profit demonstrates that the company has a quite effective management.
According to Yakunin, over the period of concession, Russian Railway has invested over 91 bln AMD (over 221 mln USD) in SCR. (As of 18 June 2014, the Armenian Central Bank's exchange rate was 411.51 AMD/1USD). "The major part of this amount was spent on modernization and development of the infrastructure. We have been doing this job for over five years and I see that the SCR keeps on developing today", said Yakunin. He added that he met with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, who gives the company instructions on further development of the SCR "under difficult economic and not so simple political conditions".
It was previously reported that the concession agreement signed with Russian Railway in 2008 for a 30- year period implies attracting investments worth about $572 mln.