CRH to extend spending spree

CRH’s “game-changing” €6.5bn takeover of certain assets from its European peers Holcim and Lafarge will not be the limit of its acquisition spend this year, with almost €1bn being generated from operations in 2014 set to fund a good pipeline of smaller deal prospects.

The Dublin-headquartered international cement and building materials giant is set to become one of the largest building suppliers in the world bought up some of the assets (mainly in Europe and the Americas) that had to be offloaded to allow for the merger of the aforementioned Swiss and French cement giants. CRH’s purchase will be voted upon by shareholders next month, but has already been called a game-changing deal for the Irish group.

Yesterday, CRH released its 2014 annual results, which showed that the group swung back into full-year profit after losses of €215m in 2013. Last year saw a pre-tax profit of €761m, with revenues growing by 5% to just under €19bn. EBITDA rose by 11% to €1.64bn and earnings per share of 78.9c compared favourably with a loss per share of 40.6c the previous year.