CRH shares rise as earnings to top €1.1bn in H1

Shares in CRH — the international building products giant — have clawed back losses suffered when the UK last month voted to leave the EU after saying that earnings will rise by more than it expected in the current year.

It did not provide any details to which global unit was behind the profits upgrade but analysts said it was likely to be because of a stronger performance from North America.

The shares rose over 2.5% yesterday and have now clawed back all their losses since the Brexit referendum on June 23.

Irish companies with large operations in Britain are under the international spotlight after sterling slumped against the euro by over 11% over the past month.

However, CRH said yesterday it had now estimated its Ebitda — earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation— in the six months to the end of June would reach €1.1bn — up from the €1bn it estimated in a trading update in April.

Trading had picked up in the latter part of the second quarter, it said, without providing any more details.

“Given the scale of this upgrade we suspect that it has come from the Americas materials division, CRH’s largest business and one which is biased towards summer trading,” Investec Ireland said. The company is due to release its full earnings report on August 25.

CRH shares plunged to €23.32 in the first few days after the Brexit vote but were trading yesterday above the June 23 level, at €27.04.

That company is valued at €22.3bn, a gain of over 1.25% since the start of the year.