CRH completes Ergon acquisition: report

According to Belgian newspapers, CRH has completed the acquisition of Ergon from the Belgian building group Willemen for an undisclosed amount.

Ergon is a producer of prefab concrete building elements, with plants in Belgium, Poland and France, and is reported to have annualised sales of €75m.

This deal is in addition to the €333m spent on acquiring a 49% stake in Secil, a leading Portuguese cement producer, and the €250m on 15 bolt-ons that it had announced at its AGM at the start of May.

On July 6 CRH is due to give an update on development spend in the ytd and H1 trading.

In relation to the latter, a spokesman from Goodbody Stockbrokers said: "We believe CRH will report a strong first-half advance on the back of a weak comparative last year (on a constant currency basis PBT declined by 13% in the first half of 2003), more favourable weather conditions in the US/Northern Europe and full contributions from a record level of deal flow last year."