CRH shares fall on profit drop, stalled buyback and lack of visibility

CRH chief executive Albert Manifold

CRH shares fell by around 2% on the back of the Irish building materials giant posting a drop in profits, pausing its share buyback policy and rowing back on acquisition activity due to the market uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The second largest building materials group in the world said its pre-tax profits for the first half of this year fell by nearly 28% to $518m (€435m), year-on-year, with revenue down almost 5% at $12.2bn and EBITDA earnings falling 2% to $1.6bn, mainly due to one-off Covid-related restructuring costs.