Russian Railways may try to cushion fall in investment with bond placements

MOSCOW- Russian Railways said on Thursday it could cut its 2020 investment programme to 200 billion roubles ($2.7 billion) from a planned 820 billion because of the coronavirus crisis, but that it might try to boost that figure by issuing open-ended bonds.

The company, one of Russia's biggest employers, may place open-ended bonds worth 370 billion roubles, allowing it to maintain investment at around 620 billion roubles, the firm's head, Oleg Belozyorov said.

($1 = 73.7805 roubles)

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Jan Harvey) ((Tom.Balmforth@thomsonreuters.com;))