Russia's NWT sees 2009 profit down 39.5 pct

MOSCOW, June 16 (Reuters) - Russian regional fixed-line operator North-West Telecom (NWT) SPTL.MM expects net profit to fall by 39.5 percent in 2009 due to forex market turbulence, its chief financial officer said on Tuesday.

The company said in a presentation it expected net profit to fall to 1.55 billion roubles ($49.5 million) from 2.6 billion in 2008.

"For the net profit, the forecast is quite moderate," CFO Venera Khusnutdinova said in an Internet conference, adding the result "will depend on the situation on the forex market."

In 2008, NWT saw net profit fall partly due to forex losses and it said earlier this month its liquidity indicators worsened as the financial crisis affected its financial position, operational results and economic prospects. [ID:nL4358863]

To cope with the crisis, NWT will cut capital expenditure by 72 percent to 3.8 billion roubles.

The company expects revenue to rise 5.1 percent to 26.5 billion roubles, at a much slower pace than expenses, which are seen growing by 12.2 percent to 26.0 billion roubles.

Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) may increase 13.6 percent to 10.9 billion roubles and the EBITDA margin is forecast to come in at 41.3 percent, up from 38.2 percent in 2008, NWT said.

As of April 1, its net debt stood at 16.6 billion roubles, of which about 1.5 billion is due this year. NWT also said some 46 percent of its debt was dollar-denominated. (Reporting by Anastasia Teterevleva; Writing by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by David Holmes)