Russia's Rusagro may increase capex in 2016 -CEO

MOSCOW, March 28 (Reuters) - Russia's Rusagro may increase capital expenditure this year as the farming conglomerate prepares to launch a greenhouse project to grow vegetables and expand its sugar capacity, Chief Executive Maxim Basov said on Monday.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Rusagro, which produces sugar as well as pork and fats, have soared by almost 240 percent over the past two years buoyed by higher output and sales, import restrictions and higher sugar prices.

The company now also plans to branch out into year-round production of vegetables with a 24 billion rouble ($350 million) greenhouse project in the Tambov region, which was approved by its board on Monday.

Basov said that although capital spending was record high in 2015, it would probably be even higher this year. He did not give details of last year's capex programme.

In 2016, capex may total 15-20 billion roubles, Basov said on a conference call, including investments in greenhouses, its pork production project in Russia's Far East (Kuala Lumpur: 5029.KL - news) and sugar mills which it has agreed to acquire from Razgulay.

The company may also make more acquisitions, including buying one or two more assets from Razgulay in which it has recently acquired an equity stake as well as its debts, Basov said.

He said the company was also working on a number of deals that could require an issue of new shares although no transaction was imminent.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) will hold a shareholder meeting on April 8 to vote on a proposed new share offering for potential deals.

Rusagro's net profit rose 17 percent last year to 23.7 billion roubles as sales grew by 23 percent, the company reported on Monday.

($1 = 68.3270 roubles) (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Olga Popova; editing by Jason Neely)