BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The Georgian Railway (GR) has published its financial report for the first half of 2021, Trend reports referring to GR.
The document shows that this year the company incurred a loss of 32 million lari ($10.3 million).
According to the financial report, from January through June, the company earned 277.6 million lari ($89.4 million), which is 32.3 million lari ($10.4 million) more than in the previous year. The increase in revenue is likely to be attributed to an increase in shipments, as the company handled 6 million tonnes of cargo in the first half of the year, up 0.5 million tonnes from 2020.
However, the increase in revenues was not enough for the state-owned company to make a profit instead of a loss.
The financial documents show that the main expenses of the railway were not operating, but financial expenses, which in the first 6 months of 2021 amounted to 184.6 million lari ($89.4 million). For comparison: last year's financial expenses were 121 million lari ($38.9 million) less.
The volume of electricity and other operating expenses amounted to 21.6 million lari ($6.9 million). Other expenses of the company amounted to 46 million lari ($14.8 million). At the same time, the volume of railway assets has depreciated by 35 million lari ($11.2 million).
This year, the Georgian Railway refinanced a $500 million debt taken in 2012. The company's bonds were traded on the London Stock Exchange at a rate of 4 percent.
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